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STUART    AND    BAMBOO 


21 


BY 

SARAH  P.  McLEAN  GREENE 

AUTHOR   OP 
"  VKSTY  OF  THE   BASINS  "   "  CAPE  COD  FOLKS  "   ETC. 


NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
HARPER   &    BROTHERS   PUBLISHERS 

1897 


BY  SARAH  P.  McL.  GREENE. 


VESTY  OP  THE  BASINS.     A  Novel.    Post  8v<>, 
Cloth,  $1  25. 

One  of  the  sweetest,  freshest  of  novels.  .  .  .  There  are 
scenes  of  humor  and  of  pal  1ms. — 1'hilatlelphia  HuUetin. 

It  is  a  work  of  real  genius — strong,  true,  brave,  and 
tender.  It  is  a  story  to  bo  read  and  remembered. — 
Newark  Advertiser. 

A  story  of  the  far  "  down  cast "  coast  of  Maine,  wonder- 
fully realistic  in  its  portrayal  of  life  and  manners  among 
the  people  of  a  remote  flshing-village.  and  rich  in  episodic 
incidents,  amusing,  sentimental,  and  dramatic. 


NK\V    YORK    AND    LONDON: 
HARPER  &   BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS. 


Copyright,  1897,  by  IURUCB  &  BROTIIKBS. 

All  riyliti  ruentd. 


STUART  AND  BAMBOO 


STUAET  AND  BAMBOO 


CHAPTER  I 

"  SECOND  class  to  Yarmouth,"  said  Mar- 
garet. 

The  man,  giving  quick  automatic  glances 
in  the  rush  of  business,  laid  down  a  first- 
class  ticket. 

"  I  said  '  second  class.' " 

"Pardon,"  said  the  man,  complying — and 
might  be  pardoned,  for  Margaret  Stuart 
stood  there  plainly  and  egregiously  "first 
class." 

"  Carriage,  lady  ?"     "  Porter,  lady  ?" 

Margaret  walked  on,  unheeding,  with  her 
burdens. 

She  found  a  place  in  the  crowded  car  at 
last,  but  tete-a-tete  with  a  bounteous  moth- 


2  STUAKT   AND    BAMBOO 

er  and  her  surrounding  galaxy  of  soiled 
cherubs. 

"Widow?"  said  this  woman  at  length, 
kindly. 

"  Yes." 

"Childern?" 

"  Yes — in  heaven,"  Margaret  added,  low, 
for  she  had  been  a  Sunday-school  teacher 
in  the  First Church  at  D . 

"I  surmised  it  from  the  heft  o'  your 
weeds ;  they  was  babies,  I  opine — ye  ain't 
over  twenty-five." 

"  I  am  thirty." 

"  Sho !  "Well,  well — so  be — they're  better 
off  with  God." 

"  Do  you  not  think  God  is  with  them 
here?"  said  Margaret,  so  fine  a  quality  of 
sarcasm  in  her  sweet  low  voice  the  woman 
looked  safely  incredulous. 

"  It's  a  thought,  anyway !"  she  admitted, 
guardedly,  and  proceeded  to  open  her  lunch- 
basket. 

Margaret  was  now  the  only  one  in  the 
car  who  was  not  eating.  Freight-bound  for 
the  night  with  the  rest,  she  appeared  to  be 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  3 

without  resource  for  refreshment.  The  ma- 
tron, looked  over  her  disordered  food,  im- 
printed everywhere  with  babies'  fingers — 
the  milk  -  bottles  were  out  of  the  question. 
But  a  trim  little  country  milliner,  the  other 
side  of  the  aisle,  took  her  life  in  her  hand 
and  solved  the  problem. 

"  Try  one  of  my  sponge  -  cakes,  madam," 
said  she,  offering  it  to  Margaret  on  a  nap- 
kin. "  I  made  'em  myself.  Do  !  I'll  feel 
real  hurt  if  you  despise  it." 

"  Despise  it !"  said  Margaret,  thanking 
her  as  she  took  the  gift,  and  they  saw, 
now  that  her  still  face  broke  into  a  smile, 
a  possibility  of  humor  not  to  be  excelled, 
even  in  a  second  -  class  carriage,  mingled 
with  a  haunting  sort  of  loveliness. 

"I'll  bet,"  said  a  buxom  professional 
nurse,  who  was  engaged  in  a  flirtation  with 
a  blacksmith,  as  noisy  and  pronounced  as 
the  play  of  the  latter's  own  anvils — "I'll 
bet,  now,  that  lady  yonder  's  travellin'  off 
on  her  temper.  I  know  style.  I've  nursed 
'em.  Yes,  sir!  she's  got  her  sails  set  for  a 
cruise  in  the  schooner  Holy  Spunk!"  She 


4  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

marched  over  to  Margaret  with  a  piece  of 
bread  in  her  wholesome  hand  and  dropped 
it  in  her  lap.  "Eat  that  before  you  eat 
your  cake,"  said  she ;  "  it's  better  for  ye." 

So!  Not  only  to  be  fed  as  by  ravens, 
but  on  hygienic  principles ! 

"Try  one  o'  my  home-made  pickles  for 
a  ralish,"  said  another  voice.  A  cucumber 
as  large  as  a  small  kitten  was  deposited  by 
the  side  of  the  bread. 

The  milliner  had  plenty  of  sponge-cakes, 
the  nurse  had  superfluous  bread,  the  pickle- 
woman  had  profuse  specimens  of  the  same 
abnormal  development ;  but  a  youthful  pair 
on  the  front  seat  had  just  one  orange  be- 
tween them  wherewith  to  moisten  their  bis- 
cuits. 

After  a  whispered  conversation  the  boy 
arose,  walked  solemnly  to  Margaret,  lifted 
his  hat,  as  his  girl  had  strictly  enjoined 
upon  him  to  do,  and  without  a  word  placed 
the  orange  in  the  general  contribution-box 
— her  lap. 

Margaret,  meditating  many  things,  waited 
a  little  before  she  went  over  to  the  donors. 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  5 

"  I  have  eaten  so  much — people  have  been 
so  kind — I  really  cannot  take  this,"  she  said, 
with  a  manner  that  satisfied  them ;  and  the 
youth,  who  was  a  carpenter,  now  divided 
the  fruit  with  his  girl  as  mathematically  as 
if  he  were  working  with  chisel  and  plane. 

A  laugh  startled  Margaret  as  she  turned 
and  stood  face  to  face  with  a  young  wom- 
an, only  the  back  of  whose  restless  auburn 
head  had  been  visible  to  her  before. 

She  sat  among  a  cluster  of  admirers  of 
the  most  overgrown  sylvan  type,  whose  ver- 
dancy she  evidently  appreciated,  for  her 
head  was  at  once  thrown  back  with  a  con- 
temptuous indifference  to  all  things,  waiting 
for  the  charity-fed  lady  to  pass  on. 

She  herself,  with  her  radiant  brown  eyes 
and  hair,  Avas  a  Hebe  in  form,  with  features 
suggestive  of  a  Madonna;  long  lashes  —  in 
this  moment  of  social  abeyance — drooping, 
dove-like,  on  her  cheeks. 

"What  a  beauty!"  thought  Margaret, 
passing  on  to  her  seat. 

As  she  did  so  Hebe,  with  insolent  precipi- 
tancy, became  again  an  informing  sun  in 


6  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

I 

the  midst  of  her  satellites.  Pleasantry  so 
cheerful  as  to  partake  even  of  resounding 
cuffs  and  slaps  reached  Margaret's  ears; 
presently  she  saw  the  auburn  head  crowned 
with  a  male  hat,  ungallantly  forced  there 
by  the  largest  bumpkin  of  all,  who  had  as- 
sumed Hebe's  own.  His  fat  weak  face,  thus 
adorned,  took  on  a  simpering  look,  and  the 
poor  straggling  feathers,  so  jaunty  on  their 
owner,  drooped  strangely  over  his  asinine 
ears. 

From  this  marked  nucleus  of  wit  the 
mirth  became  general :  the  matron  opposite 
Margaret  shook  with  unimbittered  laughter. 
"  I'm  goin'  to  give  that  hawk  of  a  girl  some- 
thing to  do!"  said  she.  She  took  up  the 
smallest  squirming  baby  and  went  over  to 
Hebe.  "  Would  you  hold  him  a  little  for  me, 
miss?"  she  said,  with  the  simplest  natural 
confidence;  "he's  tired  o'  me;  they  like  a 
change  o'  arms." 

Hebe  was  under  the  reckless  and  resentful 
consciousness  that  she  was  tabooed,  even  in 
a  second-class  caravan,  for  her  wild  con- 
duct; a  quick  eager  light  came  over  her 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  7 

face  as  she  reached  out  her  arms  for  the 
child. 

"  Quit,  now !"  said  she,  authoritatively,  to 
the  renewed  bantering  of  her  admirers,  and 
henceforth  deigned  no  rejoinder  to  them  as 
she.  tossed  the  delighted  baby  in  her  buoy- 
ant young  arms. 

The  rejected  rose  in  a  body  and  shuffled, 
grinning  foolishly,  out  to  the  smoking-car. 

The  baby,  with  growing  jubilance,  at  last 
thrust  its  ecstatic  fingers  into  Hebe's  hair; 
she  twisted  about  to  extricate  the  little  fist 
and  her  eyes  met  Margaret's ;  she  gave  the 
older  woman  a  glance,  half  of  triumph,  half 
with  a  long,  unmistakable  gleam  of  dislike 
and  defiance  in  it. 

"  I  can  smell  gov'ment  bonds,  fam'ly  trees, 
and  indigo  -  blue  Presbyterians  clear  the 
whole  length  of  this  car,"  said  she  to  the 
child's  mother,  who  came  to  her  assistance. 
"  "Why  don't  she  travel  with  her  own  set  ?" 

"  She  answers  all  my  questions  polite 
enough,"  returned  the  matron ;  "  but,  after 
all,  I  don't  seem  to  drain  her  o'  no  infor- 
mation, and  I'm  on  the  tanterhooks  all  the 


8  STUAKT   AND   BAMBOO 

time  Avith  the  children  mussin'  over  her  silk 
urabrell'  and  things.  Ha!  ha!  ye've  found 
a  better  mother  than  me,  hain't  ye,  ye  little 
ongrate!"  she  said,  good-naturedly,  taking 
back  her  unwilling  infant. 

As  the  dusk  was  growing,  some  one  had 
opened  wide  both  doors;  the  wind  swept 
through,  sweet  and  cool;  children  were 
swinging  across  the  aisle  on  suspended 
shawl  -  straps ;  the  conductor,  making  an 
occasional  entry,  stepped  obligingly  over 
both  children  and  swings ;  seeing  the  place 
beside  Hebe  empty,  he  sat  down  there. 

The  young  carpenter  was  having  another 
serious  conversation  with  his  girl ;  he  arose 
and  addressed  something  to  the  ears  of  the 
passengers  as  he  stepped  down  the  aisle ; 
when  he  reached  Margaret  he  paused  in  the 
same  grave  manner — 

"  Will  you  join  us  in  singing  the  '  Sweet 
By-and-by'?" 

Margaret's  mouth  twitched  with  the  sur- 
prise of  the  invitation. 

"  I  will  do  my  best,"  she  said. 

The  carpenter's  girl  started  it,  but  Hebe 


STUAKT   AND    BAMBOO  9 

took  it  up  and  flooded  the  car  with  it ;  she 
sang  the  first  verse  in  a  thrilling  soprano; 
she  rendered  the  second  in  a  showy  alto ; 
she  warbled  the  third  in  a  melting  tremulo, 
"  We  shall  meet  on  that  beautiful  shore." 

The  conductor,  as  temporary  proprietor 
of  so  much  vocal  pre-eminence,  put  his  arm 
engagingly  along  the  back  of  Hebe's  seat. 

A  man  in  sleek  broadcloth,  who  had  come 
strolling  from  one  of  the  first  -  class  car- 
riages, stood  in  the  door  and  stared  marked- 
ly at  Hebe  with  insolent  favor. 

The  conductor  at  length  rose  up  reluc- 
tantly and  went  about  his  duties. 

The  first-class  man,  after  a  brief  absence, 
returned  and  renewed  his  unembarrassed 
gaze  and  waiting  attitude  at  the  door. 
Hebe's  head  was  thrown  back;  when  would 
the  dove-like  lids  open  again  and  conscious- 
ly or  unconsciously  invite  this  unctuous  new- 
admirer  ? 

Margaret,  impelled  by  a  new,  perhaps  a 
second-class,  impulse  of  tenderness  for  what 
did  not  concern  her,  walked  leisurely  and, 
as  it  were,  indifferently  over  to  the  girl. 


10  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

"  May  I  sit  down  here  a  moment  ?"  she 
said.  "  One  gets  so  tired  in  the  one  place." 

"  Cert'nly,"  said  Hebe,  stiffly. 

"  That  is  my  card,"  said  Margaret,  put- 
ting that  choicely  engraved  and  black-edged 
memento  in  Hebe's  hand.  "  Stuart.  My 
name  was  Stuart  and  I  married  a  Stuart, 
not  a  cousin  either,  not  any  relation — but  it 
was  quite  odd,  was  not  it?"  she  went  on, 
with  trained  facility  for  making  talk. 

"  I  don't  carry  my  name  around  except  in 
my  head,"  said  Hebe.  "It's  Milderd  St. 
Thomas.  '  Duds  Sen  Tammy '  they  call  me 
over  to  Yarmouth." 

"  Do  you  live  in  Yarmouth  ?  I  am  going 
there." 

"I  work  in  the  lobster  factory — canning." 
Mildred  St.  Thomas  seemed  to  hope  this 
would  prove  shocking. 

"  We  take  the  boat  to-morrow  ?" 

"  Yes,  and  it's  an  awful  cranky  boat,  too : 
the  wind's  east,  it's  going  to  be  rough." 
Mildred  spoke  as  though  this  at  least  should 
settle  her  undesired  acquaintance,  and  turn- 
ed her  head  to  the  window. 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  11 

"Am  I  incommoding  you?"  said  Mar- 
garet, gently,  after  a  little.  "Would  you 
rather  have  the  seat  for  —  other  acquaint- 
ances ?" 

"  I'm  not  pitch !"  said  Mildred  St.  Thomas, 
with  a  relieving  flash  of  indignation.  "  If 
people  come  and  stick  to  me,  I  can't  help  it ; 
but  I  ain't  a  fool,  and  there's  no  pitch  on 
me,  either !" 

Margaret  sat  very  quiet,  not  even  draw- 
ing away  after  this  blow. 

The  first-class  man  in  broadcloth  had  dis- 
appeared from  view.  The  car  was  growing 
very  dim,  and  there  were  yet  no  signs  of 
lighting  the  lamps ;  mothers  here  and  there 
were  crooning  their  tired  babies  to  sleep; 
and  still  the  lady,  silent  and  unoff ended,  sat 
close  by  the  resentful  member  of  the  lobster 
factory. 

"May  I  kiss  you,  dear?"  she  said,  rising 
at  last.  "  I  am  so  lonely  to-night — I  can 
hardly  keep  from  crying." 

Mildred  lifted  a  sudden  wondering 
glance  to  the  pale  face  and  trembling  lips 
above  her.  "  You  kiss  me  /"  she  laughed  bit- 


12  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

terly  under  her  breath.  Margaret  stooped 
down  and  kissed  her,  and  the  veil  she  wore 
fell  for  an  instant  softly  over  the  girl's 
shoulder;  then  she  went  back  to  her  place. 

When  the  lamps  were  ablaze  the  traveller 
in  broadcloth  came  again  and  stood  tenta- 
tively at  the  door,  but  Mildred's  averted 
face  rested  against  the  cushions,  hopelessly 
cold  and  unresponsive. 

The  matron  disposed  her  sleeping  children 
wherever  science,  assisted  by  philanthropy, 
could  make  room  for  them.  One  little  fel- 
low with  home-knit  woollen  stockings,  and 
pink  slippers  from  the  shop,  grew  painfully 
cramped  and  distressed  in  position  as  the 
night  wore  on  and  his  mother's  unconscious 
form  became  inattentive. 

Margaret,  sleepless,  lifted  him  and  laid  him 
easily  in  her  own  arras ;  one  wild,  strange 
look  he  gave  her,  then  instantly  caught  up 
the  thread  of  his  broken  slumbers  with  a 
grateful  sigh. 

"  Have  you  been  hold  in'  that  young  one 
all  night,  ma'am?  God  forgive  me,  I 
couldn't  no  more  help  sleepin'  than  a  cat 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  13 

under  a  stove!  God  bless  ye  kindly,  ma'am ! 
Do  take  my  pocket-mirrer  !" 

It  was  thrice  cracked.  Margaret  retained 
it  a  moment,  politely  trying  to  find  some 
coherent  plan  of  her  features  in  it.  Unsuc- 
cessful in  this,  she  smoothed  some  strands  of 
hair  as  gravely  as  if  the  reflection  had  been 
in  any  degree  suggestive. 

"  Goin'  on  by  boat  ?" 

"  Yes." 

"  Well,  I  ain't,  thank  the  Lord  !  When 
we  get  to  Percy's  Mount  I'm  home.  Ye're 
a  proud-sized  Avoman,  but  ye  ain't  over  and 
above  robust  lookin'.  I  invite  ye  kindly  to 
stop  'n'  rest  with  me  till  Thursday's  boat. 
My  man's  dead,  but  I've  always  had  a  jant 
o'  meat  in  the  house  so  far." 

"  No,  thank  you  ;  I  will  go  on." 

"  Anybody  waitiri'  for  ye?" 

"  No." 

"  Summerin'  ?" 

"  Summering  and  wintering,  both,"  said 
Margaret,  with  a  catch  in  her  throat  the 
other  did  not  hear. 

On  the  boat  Margaret  clung  for  life  to 


14  STUART    AND    BAMBOO 

the  cold  wind  of  the  deck ;  the  craft  pitched 
and  rolled,  and  a  dreadful  premonition  of 
illness  was  upon  her.  All  had  gone  below 
save  herself,  braced  amidships,  and  one 
other  individual,  leaning  with  plain  disgust 
of  life  over  the  railing.  In  her  sick  despair 
she  had  not  even  noticed  that  it  was  the 
sleek  first-class  traveller  of  the  train,  now 
miserably  collapsed,  with  his  hat  hanging  at 
his  side  and  his  bald  head  revealed. 

A  steward  ascended  to  sound  the  supper- 
gong  in  the  ears  of  this  feeble  audience. 

"Bring  me  a  piece  of  salt  codfish,  un- 
cooked, and  some  pilot  -  bread,"  Margaret 
said  to  him,  and  a  sick  hallucination  came 
to  her  that  this  repast,  and  this  alone,  could 
stay  her  woes. 

But  no  sooner  had  she  taken  it  in  her 
hand  than  an  uncontrollable  desire  came 
over  her  to  throw  it  as  far  from  her  as 
possible  into  the  sea.  She  knew  that  she 
could  never  reach  the  deck-railing,  yet  un- 
less that  piece  of  fish  were  even  in  the 
depths  of  the  sea  she  felt  that  she  should 
die. 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  15 

She  had  been  called  a  straight  and  strong 
thrower,  for  a  woman,  but  illness  had  al- 
ready seized  her;  the  codfish  glanced  forth, 
wavering,  thwarted  too  by  a  gust  of  wind, 
and  hit  her  suffering  solitary  companion  on 
the  back  of  his  bald  head  ! 

Margaret  leaned,  clinging  faintly  with  her 
slender  straining  muscles  to  a  deck-chair  in 
front  of  her;  she  half  expected  that  evil 
missile  to  be  hurled  back  at  her,  but  was  in- 
different, and  only  remembered,  for  her  own 
unprovoked  attack,  that  all  crimes  are  for- 
given to  the  dying. 

"  You're  so  cold  !  —  you  ought  to-  come 
down"  —it  was  Mildred's  voice  —  "come 
down  to  your  state-room !" 

"  I  haven't  any  state-room ;  besides,  if  I 
leave  the  air  I  shall  die  !" 

"  I'll  fix  you  all  right — you  sha'n't  be  sick 
any  more.  Let  me  help  you.  Come !" 

Half  carried  by  those  strong  young  arms, 
Margaret  found  herself  down  the  stairs  in 
the  lighted  cabin,  and  flat  on  her  back  amid 
soothing  pillows  and  blankets.  Gentle  hands 
relieved  her  of  her  bonnet  and  smoothed 


16  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

the  hair  from  her  aching  temples,  and  she 
knew  no  more  till  morning. 

"  Say,  we've  struck  Yarmouth  ;  let's  get 
off  and  beat  the  town  for  a  lookin'-glass  !" 

"  Oh,  how  good  you  have  been  to  me  !" 
cried  Margaret,  springing  up,  yet  with 
something  so  blank  and  hopeless  in  her 
face. 

Mildred  drew  nearer,  hesitating,  a  strange 
softness  in  her  voice :  "  Perhaps  you're  a 
stranger?  Perhaps — you  want  a  cheap  place 
to  live  ?  Maybe — perhaps — you  want  some- 
thing to  do  ?" 

Margaret's  great  eyes  answered  her. 

" I'm asettled' resident.'"  Thegirllaughed. 
"  I'll  fix  you  all  right.  It's  poor  and  cheap 
— the  place  I  mean — but  there  ain't  a  shady 
thing  in  it  nor  by  it ;  and — I'll  find  you 
something  fit  to  do.  I'm  not  working  to- 
day— come!  I  feel  like  crusadin'  'round  on 
just  this  shape  of  a  racket."  She  gathered 
up  Margaret's  traps,  laughing.  "Look!" 
said  she,  merrily,  as  if  to  stave  off  the  tears 
of  gratitude  in  the  other's  eyes;  "do  you 
see  that  lanr/or  and  coachman,  and  him  get- 


STUART    AND    BAMBOO  17 

tin'  in?  That's  the  richest  man  in  Yar- 
mouth— that's  the  big  Judson  Sprague." 

Margaret  saw  the  wily  flirt  of  the  train, 
the  miserable  sufferer  of  the  deck. 

"  He  don't  know  me,  but  I  know  who  he 
is,"  continued  Mildred.  "  Oh,  ain't  he  giddy, 
though,  when  he  gets  away  from  home !" 

"  I  excelled  him  in  sprightliness,"  said 
Margaret.  "  I  hit  him — on  the  head — with 
a  good  half  pound  of  ossified  codfish.  The 
wind  blew  so — I  was  so  ill — 

Mildred  leaned  her  hands  on  her  hips  and 
laughed  till  she  was  weak.  "  Say,  your 
'  reserved  seat '  's  all  right,  if  you  never  do 
another  good  thing !  Say,  he's  an  old  wid- 
ower— you  needn't  'a'  been  afraid  I'd  flirted 
with  him.  High-toned  folks  like  you  he's 
all  right  to,  but  poor  girls  like  me  are  dirt 
under  his  feet ;  a  try-to-kiss  and  a  kick, 
that's  his  style  with  such  as  me,  and  your 
sort  don't  usually  mind  such  as  us  bein' 
insulted.  It's  expected.  But  he's  got  a  boy 
that  ain't  like  him  !"  Mildred  blushed  frank- 
ly. "Jeff  Sprague.  I  know  him  to  speak  to. 
Come  on,  now — we're  goin'  to  fix  you  cosey." 


CHAPTER  II 

"  MRS.  MARGARET  STUART — Mrs.  O'Ragan 
Stuart." 

"Stuart,  is  it?  Thank  God,  thin,  we've 
the  one  name!  and  so  I  thought  by  the  looks 
o'  ye,  darlin'.  'Tis  a  race  ye  can  tell  ony- 
wheres,  begorry  !  Look  forninst  me  wall !" 

Margaret  did  so,  and  saw  an  engraving  of 
the  Scottish  queen  in  her  youth. 

Mrs.  O'Ragan,  with  the  sleeves  rolled  up 
from  her  powerful  arms  and  a  large  rope 
knotted  aggressively  about  her  waist,  herself 
stood  gazing  in  rapture. 

"  Will,"  said  she,  turning  to  Margaret, 
"  would  yez  know  us  for  the  one  family  ?" 

"The  resemblance  is — something  wonder- 
ful." 

"  Will,  thin !  blissed  saint  that  she  was, 
that  Quane  Elizabeth  put  to  the  stroke ! 
And  what  happened  hersilf  for  doin'  the 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  19 

same,  but  didn't  she  combusticate  in  her 
dith,  so  niver  a  flitherin  of  her  could  be 
found  between  the  two  says  ?  Plontogonet, 
go  and  fitch  the  clar't  dimmyjon.  Fool  wid 
the  cork,  and  I'll  fool  wid  yez ! 

"  '  Pleg  '  he's  called  for  short,"  she  added, 
gravely ;  "  and  more  Pleg  he  is  for  short 
than  long  for  Plontogonet. 

"  Take  a  sip,  darlin',"  said  Mrs.  O'Ragan, 
pouring  a  little  into  a  glass.  "  'Tis  the  same 
I  took  bit  by  bit  to  Winny  Hinchy  beyant 
the  yard,  and  'twas  the  last  sip  she  took  jist 
afore  she  died,  yisterday.  "Will  yez  wake  wid 
us  the  night  ?" 

"  Pve  been  waking  for  two  nights,"  said 
Margaret,  with  unimpeachable  solemnity, 
tasting  the  wine,  however,  under  the  com- 
pulsion of  an  inherited  courtesy  that  could 
march  to  the  death. 

"  Dear,  thin,  niver  mind.  We  can't  all  be 
the  one  thing,  and  there's  many  a  Bamboo 
that  I  love  as  will  as  I  do  me  own."  For  it 
soon  developed  to  Margaret's  increasing  in- 
telligence that  Mrs.  O'Ragan  had  a  conven- 
ient habit  of  calling  every  one  who  was  not 


20  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

both  Celtic  in  race  and  Roman  Catholic  in 
ritual  a  "  Bamboo  " — not  with  religious  rep- 
robation, but  merely  as  relying  on  the  term 
to  convey  a  general  sense  of  something  for- 
eign. Whether  connected  in  her  mind  with 
Bombay  or  not  was  never  definitely  known. 

"  Thank  you.  May  I  go  up  to  my  rooms 
now  ?" 

"  Pleg,  show  the  lady.  They're  airy, 
ma'am,  on  the  side  to  the  bluffs.  Miss  Duds 
Sen  Tammy  said  you  was  one  o'  this  kind 
must  be  always  sippin'  a  bit  o'  frish  air. 
Don't  be  wishful,  ma'am,  dear.  The  blissed 
Mother  o'  God  is  wid  us  here  and  yon  and 
iverywhere.  Pleg!" 

Plantagenet  preceded  Margaret  up  the 
stairs,  indicated  her  apartments  by  turning 
and  giving  the  door  a  stout  kick  with  his 
bare  foot,  and  rushed  from  her  presence. 

Margaret  picked  up  the  key,  rattled  to  the 
floor  by  this  procedure,  and  went  in. 

"  The  blessed  Mother  of  God  is  with  us 
here  and  yon  and  everywhere."  The  \vords 
came  to  her  as  she  looked  out  on  the  bay 
with  its  green  islands. 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  21 

Within  was  a  tiny  kitchen,  white  in  the 
sunlight,  and  adjoining  a  bedroom,  bare  as 
to  wall  and  floor,  the  latter  throwing  up 
fretful  splinters  in  retaliation  for  a  recent 
scrubbing. 

There  stood  her  trunks,  remnants  of  the 
labels  of  extensive  foreign  travel  still  adher- 
ing to  them.  Margaret  bit  her  lip  with  an 
odd  smile ;  the  smile  deepened  to  half-h}7s- 
terical,  solitary  laughter  at  the  incongruous 
quality  of  the  contents,  whose  quiet,  costly 
elegance  lay  revealed  amid  her  surround- 
ings. Replacing  all  save  a  few  of  the  plain- 
est, and  one  summer  gown  of  purest  white, 
daintily  and  choicely  lace -trimmed,  which 
she  laid  on  top  as  if  for  a  purpose,  she  closed 
the  lid  and  answered  a  knock  at  the  door. 

"  'Tis  dressed  wid  an  onion  it  is,  ma'am," 
cried  Mrs.  O'Ragan,  delightedly  holding  out 
a  piece  of  brown  meat  on  a  plate,  "and  know- 
in'  yez  haven't  yet  had  time  to  be  layin'  in 
yer  bits  o'  pervisions." 

"  You  are  too  kind !"  That  the  meat  was 
clothed — even  swathed — in  onion  was  evi- 
dent to  more  than  one  sense.  Finding  an 


22  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

erratic  knife  and  fork  among  her  kitchen 
furniture,  Margaret  proceeded  to  investi- 
gate. Faint  with  hunger,  she  found  the  re- 
sult strangely  agreeable,  and  thus  employed 
was  startled  by  another  knock  at  the  door. 

"Call  me  always  Agnaiz!"  exclaimed 
a  wholesome,  affectionate  voice.  Margaret 
went  into  the  bedroom  to  bring  her  other 
chair — she  had  one  for  each  room. 

Agnes  appeared  not  to  notice  that  she 
had  been  absent  for  that  purpose,  or  that 
there  were  other  than  twenty  chairs  in  the 
room. 

"  I  have  five  childs,"  she  said,  seating  her- 
self, "  and  one  husban'." 

Margaret  smiled  back  into  the  comely 
foreign  face. 

"  I  live  also  here.  I  wailcome  you  !  We 
are  Bamboos  togezzer !"  she  added,  laughing 
with  the  most  musical  good-fellowship. 

Her  cotton  dress  was  soiled  and  her  hands 
labor -worn,  but  she  seemed  a  most  serene 
lady. 

"  My  husban'  is  Irishmans.  Well,  he  iaa 
so  good.  Wait  till  I  tell  you.  '  Agnaiz,'  ho 


STUART    AND    BAMBOO  23 

says  to  me,  'everything  ever  you  weesh  I 
give  it  you,  and  all  the  time  you  leef  wicl 
me  I  never  seen  you  cry — now  you  cry  be- 
cause I  been  drinkin'  some  liquors.  Go  put 
on  your  t'ings  and  come  'long  wid  me.'  So 
we  went,  and  he  sign  de  pladge !  Now, 
dare!" 

"  That  is  splendid  !" 

"  Yas,  is  it  not  ?     I  love  mans." 

This  was  a  little  startling. 

"  Young  mans !" 

Margaret  looked  up  and  met  a  pair  of 
pure  dark  eyes  gazing  seriously  at  her  from 
Agn-es's  face. 

"  One  has  also  here  a  room.  He  was  var' 
ill.  I  save  him  from  dine.  I  love  him  as 
my  own  childs — but  he  is  Jew  !" 

Agnes  lifted  her  eloquent  eyes  and  crossed 
herself,  sorrowfully. 

"  Now  I  love  you,  too,"  she  added. 

"  And  I  am  neither  Jew  nor  Catholic," 
said  Margaret,  smiling. 

"  I  care  not.  Somet'ing  to  my  heart  says 
I  shall  meet  you  and  Isaak  in  dose  better 
worl's.  Have  you  a  nutmaig,  Miz'  Stuart  ?" 


24  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

Now,  strangely,  Margaret  had  seen  this 
very  article,  overlooked  by  a  former  tenant, 
in  a  corner  of  the  kitchen  shelf,  and  she 
brought  it.  Agnes  blushed  her  most  gra- 
cious thanks,  and  rising  soon  thereafter,  un- 
folded from  a  damask  napkin  a  loaf  of  cake, 
than  which  Margaret  had  never  seen  any- 
thing more  alluringly  toothsome  in  appear- 
ance. 

"  Dis  mornin',"  said  Agnes,  inconsequent- 
ly,  laying  the  loaf  in  its  white  napkin  on  the 
table,  "  I  mek'  a  cake.  You  are  yet  so  busy, 
I  baig  you  to  accep'  my  poor  meeserable 
loaf  of  cake." 

"  I  do  not  know  how  to  thank  you !" 

"Come  to  see  me.  I  shall  mek'  }'ou  al- 
ways 'appy;  so  shall  my  husban'  and  childs. 
Isaak — that  is  Jew  young  mans — shall  come 
in  an'  play  you  'armony,  and  I  shall  sing 
you." 

She  went  out.  "  She  saw  the  nutmeg  and 
asked  for  it,"  thought  Margaret,  "  so  that 
she  could  more  easily  give  me  the  cake.  I 
have  stumbled  on  a  queer  community," 
she  continued,  musing;  "they  seem  to  have 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  25 

a  mania  for  giving!  I  must  return  these 
favors.  But  I  have  heard  that  'tenement' 
people  are  always  borrowing  of  and  lending 
to  one  another,  and  that  is  demoralizing," 
she  concluded,  shivering  a  little  righteously 
under  the  spell  of  superior  traditions.  "  I 
shall  treat  them  well  —  I  cannot,  of  course, 
really  associate  with  them — but  I  shall  nei- 
ther lend  nor  borrow." 

Seldom  had  a  good  resolution  earlier  op- 
portunity for  enforcement. 

A  third  rap  at  the  door,  and  a  tall,  thin 
woman,  with  a  great  fund  of  humor  in  her 
eye,  and  a  very  small  Derby  hat  capping 
jauntily  a  person  otherwise  unrecovered 
from  the  dishabille  of  the  kitchen,  made 
her  appearance. 

"I'm  Mrs.  Shaughnessy,"  she  said,  with 
much  hope. 

"My  name  is  Stuart,"  replied  Margaret, 
rather  coldly. 

"Yes,  Mrs.  O'Ragan  was  jist  tellin'  me  ye 
were  her  own  cousin  belike." 

Margaret  blushed  violently,  but  did  not 
speak. 


26  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

"  Ye're  lookin'  very  fine,  ma'am.  If  ever 
there's  ony thing  I  can  do  for  ye,  jist  come 
to  the  landin'  an'  pound  wid  yer  petaty- 
masher.  I'm  on  the  upper  floor  correspon- 
din'.  Could  ye,  Mrs.  Stuart,  ma'am,  be 
loanin'  me  a  half-dizzen  petatys  till  morn- 
in'  ?" 

"I  am  very  sorry,"  said  Margaret  (who 
was  very  glad),  "  but  I  have  not  yet  pur- 
chased any  potatoes."  This  last  clause  being 
the  pellucid  truth. 

"  What !  not  a  petaty  ?  God  help  ye, 
ma'am,"  cried  Mrs.  Shaughnessy,  fervently ; 
"that  sha'n't  long  be  said  o'  ye !' '  And  she 
shot  away. 

"  I  will  go  out  and  get  some  things,"  said 
Margaret  to  herself,  testily,  locking  the  door, 
"  as  soon  as  I  can  take  my  bath  and  change 
my  dress." 

These  things  she  accomplished  with  the 
elaborate  leisure  of  super-refined  habit.  "  My 
soiled  clothing !"  she  said,  with  a  new  thought, 
eying  it  in  dismay.  "  Of  course  I  shall  have 
to  get  a  tub  and  do  them  myself ;"  and  she 
folded  them  away,  not  without  a  smack  of 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  27 

conscious  savor  in  the  originality  of  this  en- 
terprise. 

With  gentle  leisure,  too,  she  adjusted  her 
bonnet,  hesitated  gracefully,  as  usual,  which 
wrap  to  put  on,  and  was  sailing  out — a  dis- 
proportionate figure — through  her  wee  kitch- 
en, when  there  came  another  rap — a  cour- 
teously firm  one. 

u  I  am  very  anxious  about  you,"  said  a 
slight  young  man,  the  sorrows  of  Israel  in 
his  dark  eyes,  and  bowing  as  he  handed 
Margaret  an  irreproachable  card.  "  I  am  a 
friend  of  Mrs.  Agnes  Sullivan." 

"  Will  you  come  in  ?"  said  Margaret,  with 
small  animation,  and  leaving  the  door  to 
the  dingy  hall  wide  open. 

"  I  will  detain  you  but  a  moment ;  you 
are  going  out."  He  accepted  one  of  the 
chairs.  Margaret,  sitting  in  the  other,  her 
choice  black  draperies  sweeping  the  bare 
little  floor,  blushed  with  annoyance. 

But  no  sense  of  these  things  affected  the 
earnest  and  grave  consciousness  of  Isaac  Gil- 
christ;  his  prophetic  eyes  took  in  no  puny 
detail. 


28  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

"  I  simply  wish  to  say,"  he  went  on, "  that 
you  must  remember  always  that  you  have 
friends — dear  and  loving  friends — of  whom 
I  am  one.  You  must  not  let  yourself  be 
afraid.  Remember,  always,  there  is  one  in 
this  house  who  thinks  of  you." 

He  rose  to  go.  "  I  thank  you,"  said  Mar- 
garet, biting  her  lip,  nor  wholly  able  to  con- 
ceal the  irreverent  amaze  in  her  eyes.  This 
expression  widened  to  frank  and  mirthful 
scepticism  as  she  closed  the  door  after  her 
guest. 

"He  is  the  'Wandering  Je\v  ' — at  last!" 
with  a  gleam  of  her  beautiful  white  teeth 
that  there  was  no  one  near  to  appreciate; 
"his  face  is  about  thirty,  his  eyes — witnessed 
the  erection  of  the  pyramids !  *  A  dear  and 
loving  friend !  thinking  always  of  one!'  and 
with  no  more  capacity  for  coquetry  than  the 
stone  tablets  of  the  law!  "Well,  as  ^Irs. 
O'Ragan's  'own  cousin,'  I  must  be  going 
out  for  me  petatys." 

Margaret  stepped  charily  down  the  stairs 
and  out.  Hesitating  a  moment  whether  to 
follow  the  attractive  path  along  the  bluffs, 


STUART    AND    BAMBOO  29 

or  to  go  immediately  to  the  town,  she  saw 
a  much -encumbered  figure  toiling  up  the 
street. 

With  a  glad  leap  in  her  heart  she  went  to 
meet  Mildred  St.  Thomas. 

"  I'm  used  to  these  things.  I  c'n  make 
better  bargains  'n  you,"  said  the  handsome 
girl,  beaming  erect  amid  her  numerous  par- 
cels. "  The  coals  are  coming  right  along." 

"  Oh,  how  lovely  of  you  !  Coals — to  be 
sure !  I  never  thought." 

So  the  two  went  up  to  the  little  kitchen, 
and  putting  the  small  receipted  bills  to- 
gether made  up  the  sum  with  brows  in- 
dicating intense  application,  and  Margaret 
gratefully  reimbursed  her  friend. 

"  Now  stay  to  tea  with  me ;  stay !"  she 
said,  bustling  about  housewifely. 

"  I  guess  I  will,  for  your  sake,  if  you're 
going  to  cook  the  meat  that  way,"  said  Mil- 
dred. "  Mrs.  Cap'n  " — she  burst  out  laugh- 
ing. 

"  What  ?" 

"  Mrs.  Cap'n  Herkimer's  coming  up  to  see 
you  to-morrow  morning.  She"- -Mildred 


30  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

choked  somewhat  again — "w-wants  you  to 
help  her." 

"  "Why  are  you  laughing  so  ?    Housework?" 

"  N-no.     It's  b-brain-work." 

"  Well,  perhaps  I  am  not  so  deficient  as 
you  think,"  said  Margaret,  with  slight  asper- 
it}r,  putting  an  iron  kettle  in  her  dish-pan 
and  proceeding  to  wash  the  soot  off  the 
bottom. 

"  People  don't  do  that.  They  don't  wash 
the  bottoms  of  kettles  like  that." 

"  They  must  be  very  indecent  then,"  said 
Margaret,  with  a  fine  virtue  that  neverthe- 
less was  already  beginning  to  merge  into 
despair. 

"See  here!  you've  got  in  a  rocky  place. 
You'll  never  see  a  rockier,"  said  Mildred, 
gently  usurping  the  stand  at  the  sink. 

Margaret,  with  red  cheeks,  spent  some  ten 
minutes  in  restoring  her  arms  and  hands  to 
their  original  complexion. 

"What  made  you  laugh  so  in  speaking  of 
Mrs.  Captain  Ilerkimer?" 

"  Oh,  n-nothing.  I  went  to  see  her — she'll 
be  up  to-morrow." 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  31 

"  Is  she  a  fool  that  wishes  another  fool  for 
company  ?"  said  Margaret,  discovering  an- 
other streak  of  soot  on  her  fair  wrist. 

Mildred  simply  gave  her  a  jovial,  rather 
reproachful,  glance  out  of  her  bright  brown 
eyes. 

"Come  and  sit  with  me  just  for  a  little, 
dear  —  I'm  so  lonely.  We  will  put  some 
coals  on  the  grate  in  ray  bedroom." 

Mildred  watched  the  older  woman's  tran- 
quil position,  the  graceful  ease  of  her  quiet 
hands,  the  sweep  of  her  soft  dress  on  the 
splintered  floor,  and  half  idolized  her,  and, 
half,  her  heart  broke  over  her. 

Mildred's  own  hands,  used  to  "  job-work  " 
at  the  canning  factory,  clasped  her  knee 
restlessly. 

"  Tell  me  some  more  about  those  places 
where  you  have  been,  some  time,"  she  said, 
earnestly,  when  she  rose  to  go ;  for  Marga- 
ret's conversation,  though  only  of  the  past, 
had  been  made  vivid  with  interest  for  the 
girl,  and  Mildred  St.  Thomas  had  asked  no 
questions. 

"  Wait  a  moment !"  said  Margaret,  lightly, 


32  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

going  to  the  trunk  where  she  had  laid  the 
white  dress  and  lifting  the  lid.  "I  want 
you  to  take  this — you  would  look  so  sweet 
in  it  of  a  summer  day;  not"--  she  said, 
glancing  at  the  girl's  face — "  to  pay  you  for 
being  so  kind  to  me— I  could  never  do  that 
—but  because  /  wish  you  to  have  it." 

"  I  can't  take  that !"  said  Mildred,  looking 
down  with  burning  eyes  and  cheeks  where 
the  exquisite,  spotless  thing  lay  unfolded. 
"  I  love  it !  I  love  those  kind  of  things — 
but  they  ain't  my  sort !  I  can't  take  that !" 

Margaret,  who  was  used  to  having  her 
own  way,  simply  laid  her  head  down  on 
the  trunk  and  put  her  hands  to  her  face 
without  a  word. 

"  I'll  take  it,"  said  Mildred,  under  this  as- 
pect of  the  affair.  "  Perhaps  some  time  I'll 
be  fit  to — perhaps  some  time  I  can  wear  it." 

"Why  of  course  you  will  wear  it,"  said 
Margaret,  now  brightly,  wrapping  up  the 
gown. 

The  girl's  face  was  pale ;  the  lids  had  their 
dovelike  droop,  white  and  still.  "  Perhaps, 
some  time." 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  33 

Margaret  kissed  her,  and  she  went  out 
with  her  parcel. 

At  the  third  turn  down  the  lighted  street, 
Jeff  Sprague  showed  his  homely,  beaming 
face.  "Why,  you're  late  to-night,  Duds! 
Let  me  carry  your  parcel." 

"  You  can't  touch  it !" 

Jeff  tried  to  find  a  securer  resting-place 
for  a  small  polo-cap  on  his  particularly  big 
head  of  coarse  brown  hair. 

"  Well,  never  mind.  Some  time  you  won't 
need  to  go  about  picking  up  old  clothes,"  he 
said,  with  lurking  tenderness  in  the  jest. 

"  The  old  clothes  where  I  got  this  —  I'd 
wear  her  rags,  I'd  wear  her  cast-off  shoes, 
sooner  than  I'll  go  with  you  any  more,  Jeff 
Sprague !" 

"  Why,  Duds !     Why,  Mildred !" 

"You're  engaged  to  Nell  Herkimer,  and 
her  folks  don't  know  that  you  ever  spoke  a 
word  to  me.  They  was  good  to  me  when  I 
went  to  get  work  for  Mrs.  Stuart — Nellie 
and  all.  I  ain't  on  the  square  with  'em,  and 
I  don't  like  it !" 

Jeff  put  his  hands  in  his  pockets  and  stood 


34  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

with  legs  firmly  planted,  as  if  he  were  com- 
pelling the  deck  in  a  choppy  sea.  "  I'll  go  and 
tell  Nellie  to-night  that  I  made  a  mistake — 
that  I  ain't  fit  to  make  her  happy.  I'll  go 
to-night  and  tell  my  father  that  I'm  going 
to  marry  Mildred  St.  Thomas  —  a  girl  he 
doesn't  know,  but  whom,  all  the  same,  I'm 
going  to  marry,  and  by  to-morrow  you  shall 
know  that  I  have  done  both." 

"  Well— go  then !" 

Jeff's  face  lighted  unreservedly.  He  start- 
ed off. 

"  Jeff  !  Come  back,  Jeff !  I'm  not  ready 
yet,  Jeff.  I  —  I  was  just  trying  to  see  if 
you  are  honest  instead  of  a  flirt  like  your 
father.  Your  father  tried  to  flirt  with  me 
on  the  train,  Jeff." 

"  I  can't  blame  him ;  but  the  old  boy  's  too 
snobbish  to  marry  a  shop-girl,  my  darling — 
all  the  better  luck!  I  wouldn't  have  you 
for  a  '  mamma ' — neither  for  a  mamma  nor  a 
sister." 

Mildred  laughed,  but  with  an  absorbing 
triumph  in  her  eyes. 

"  I  knew  you  were  honest,  Jeff — I  knew. 


STUART    AND    BAMBOO  35 

But  Nellie  —  she  thinks  you  are  honest, 
too." 

"  I  am !  I  haven't  kissed  her  once  since  I 
got  acquainted  with  you.  She  thinks  it's 
only  '  backsliding.'  I've  told  you  times 
enough  how  her  folks  and  my  father  hatch- 
ed up  that  match,  and  she  got  me  into  a 
meeting — and  cried.  And — I  was  younger 
then.  It  was  before  you  came."  Jeff  set 
his  teeth,  then  sighed  drearily.  "  But  we'll 
work  out  of  it  all  right,  my  girl.  It's  all 
bound  to  clear !" 

"  And  she  loves  you  ?" 

"  How  can  she  ?"  Evidently  Jeff  was  in- 
credulous that  more  than  one  girl  could  love 
him,  if  so  much.  Standing  about  the  height 
of  Mildred  herself,  his  broad  form  was  roughly 
muscular,  his  irregularly  featured  face  looked 
almost  grotesque  in  contrast  with  hers. 

"  But  she  might  like  ugly  things,  the  same 
as  me,"  said  Mildred,  pushing  back  one  of 
the  stiff  locks  under  his  cap,  quite  in  the  way 
of  natural  possession,  a  look  in  her  face  that 
struck  Jeff  as  something  to  be  holily  re- 
garded. 


36  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

"But  I  believe  in  beauty  in  the  family," 
he  said,  "  and  I'm  going  to  have  it !" 

Mildred  laughed  condescendingly,  as  she 
would  with  an  awkward  child. 

"  Well,  I  can't  have  you  walking  with  me 
any  farther.  Good-night,  Jeff !" 

"It's  a  rocky  world  and  a  blind  road,  I 
must  say,"  said  the  poor  girl  in  her  own 
room,  spreading  out  Margaret's  entrancing 
gift  again  to  view.  She  bent  over  it,  touched 
the  soft  lace,  and  inhaled  the  dainty  perfume 
still  clinging  to  it,  before  putting  it  sacredly 
away. 

"  But  Jeff — why,  I  love  poor  Jeff !  He's 
just  my  own  boy  like,  Jeff  is,  and  I'm  all 
alone !" 

"  Well,  it's  rocky !"  Mildred's  mattress  was 
not  calculated  to  soften  her  aspersions  on 
life. 

She  had  not  knelt  beside  her  bed,  for  that 
was  not  her  habit,  but  after  lying  a  long  time 
with  wide-open  eyes,  she  put  up  her  hands 
and  forced  the  lids  down,  smarting  : 

"  O  God !  help  me  some  time  to  be  fit  to 
wear  the  dress." 


CHAPTER  III 

"  I  HEAR  you  have  a  personage  in  these 
tenements,"  said  Mrs.  Captain  Herkimer,  se- 
vere in  rustling  silk. 

"And  pray  what  am  I  meself,  ma'am?" 
inquired  Mrs.  O'Ragan. 

"You  used  to  do  washing  for  me  very 
well — very  well,  Bridget;  but  if  you  have 
by  chance  a  refined  person  in  reduced  cir- 
cumstances come  to  lodge  here,  I  should  ad- 
vise you  to  take  away  that  old  broom  that 
I've  seen  ricketin'  up  against  the  side  o'  the 
house  since  time  was." 

"Thank  ye  for  yer  complimint,  ma'am, 
and  the  broom  '11  stand  there  jist  the  same. 
There's  nothing  in  an  innercent  old  broom, 
swept  clane  wid  mony  a  storm  and  Avid  a 
white  rag  flyin'  to  it  for  dark  nights,  to  dis- 
agree wid  yer  meddlin',  thavin'  old  Board 
o'  Hilth,  ma'am." 


88  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

"  Of  course  she's  a  Protestant,  Bridget  ?" 

"  Why  of  course,  thin  ?  Yez  have  the  so- 
cial tact  on  ye,  begorry,  to  come  and  insult 
me  on  me  own  door-stip!" 

"Well,  well,  step  aside,  I'm  coming  in, 
Bridget."  Mrs.  Ilerkimer  held  up  her  dress, 
Bridget  tightened  the  cable  about  her  waist. 

"  I  know  you  don't  have  unwholesome 
dirt,  but  you  always  have  so  many  rags  and 
tags  lying  about,  Bridget.  If  you  spent  the 
time  picking  up  that  you  spend  going  to 
that  foolish  'mass,'  raking  and  scraping  all 
you  can  get  together  to  get  somebody's  soul 
out  o'  purgatory— 

"  Miz'  Ilerkimaire  !"  cried  an  excited  voice 
down  the  stairway,  "  on  your  dine  bed,  your 
sins  look  to  you  big  as  dis  house !" 

"  Good-morning,  Agnes,"  said  Mrs.  Iler- 
kimer, pleasantly. 

"  Once,"  continued  Agnes,  "  I  went,  dis- 
custed,  to  your  meeting.  I  hear  get  up  a 
convert,  an  old  lady.  '  I  smokes,  I  chews,' 
she  says.  '  Boo  hoo ! — for  me  pray ' — while 
de  boys  de  wads  of  paper  at  her  t'row. 
I  seen  it !" 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  39 

"  It  is  Mrs.  Herkimer !"  gasped  Margaret 
to  herself,  hearing  these  turmoils.  "  Where 
shall  I  place  her  in  these  bare  rooms  ?"  Not 
shame,  but  the  inherited  sense  of  luxury, 
made  her  stand  suddenly  aghast  like  one 
uncovered. 

But  now  a  fresh  commotion  on  all  sides 
arose,  a  noise  and  tumult  that  drowned  the 
renewed  altercation  of  the  captain's  lady 
and  Mrs.  O'Ragan,  and  into  Margaret's  bed- 
room came  pouring  the  choicest  furniture  of 
the  tenements : 

Mrs.  Shaughnessy's  two  upholstered  crim- 
son plush  chairs — "  Oh,  do,  ma'am,  jist  while 
ye  be  havin'  yer  call!  Sure,  our  Blissed 
Saviour  tells  us  to  lind." 

Agnes  Sullivan's  pretty  rugs  on  the  floor — 
"  It  is  our  'abit.  Our  Fader  in  heaven  says 
we  shall  always  borrow  one  anodder." 

A  blue-silk  counterpane  from  somewhere 
else,  pillow-covers  standing  out  with  starched 
ruffles  a  quarter  of  a  yard  Avide,  gJory,  color 
everywhere,  and  Margaret  alone  again,  try- 
ing to  bite  back  the  tears.  "  And  I  would 
not  have  loaned  even  a  potato  —  on  princi- 


40  STUAKT   AND   BAMBOO 

pie!  Perhaps  among  the  poor,  it  is — it  is 
sometimes  advisable !" 

"  Bridget,"  said  Mrs.  Herkimer's  voice,  on 
the  third  stair,  "  here's  a  button  off  of  one  of 
your  boys'  trousers.  A  button  saved  is  a 
button  earned,  Bridget." 

"  Thank  ye !"  replied  Mrs.  O'Eagan,  sarcas- 
tically. "  Are  ye  sure  it  ain't  the  '  Christian 
Indivor'  badge  dropped  off  yerself,  ma'am?" 

"  Pshaw  !  Bridget.  You  need  a  skewer 
to  get  the  dirt  out  of  these  little  corners 
here." 

"Kape  the  button  and  welcome!"  cried 
Mrs.  O'Ragan,  wrathfully ;  "  it  '11  do  well  to 
dhrop  for  the  support  o'  yer  own  church  nixt 
Sunday,  where,  begorry,  they  pass  around  a 
smeltin'-net  for  a  conthribution-box !" 

The  rustling  silk  entered  Margaret's  apart- 
ment. 

"Well,  you  look  quite  comfortable  here, 
Mrs.  Stuart." 

There  were  tears  still  in  Margaret's  eyes 
and  red  in  her  cheeks;  she  was  not  very 
comfortable,  but  she  welcomed  the  captain's 
lady  graciously. 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  41 

"Mildurd  St.  Thomas  (Mildurd's  a  girl 
that's  sewed  for  me  sometimes  when  she 
was  off  work  at  the  cannin'  factory)  tells 
me  you're  a  personage  that  wants  some- 
thing to  do." 

"  Yes,  I'll  be  glad  of  anything  to  do." 

Now  Margaret  could  no  more  help  her 
voice  being  sweet  and — lazy,  than  she  could 
help  the  air  of  self-possession  enveloping 
her. 

"  I  see,"  said  Mrs.  Herkimer,  contemplat- 
ing her  through  her  glasses — "I  see."  For 
a  long  time  she  saw,  while  Margaret  gazed 
politely  and  composedly  at  the  grate.  "I 
know  crosses  n^self.  When  captain  and  I 
was  voyagin',  I  met  with  wreck  once.  We 
don't  cruise  now.  We're  very  comfortable. 
Captain  was  on  the  seas  at  a  time  when 
sailin'-vessels  made  money.  Yes,  I  suppose 
there  ain't  but  one  bigger  house  in  Yar- 
mouth, and  that's  Judson  Sprague's. 

"  Ain't  it  hard,  after  all  I've  been  through, 
that  there  ain't  a  soul  to  sympathize  and  feel 
with  me  ? — nobody  to  set  down  and  pet  me 
a  little  ?  Dr.  Saxe  said  the  other  day, '  Why, 


42  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

Mrs.  Herkimer,  what  you  need's  a  little  pet- 
tin','  he  says." 

The  large  and  kindly  eyes  of  the  captain's 
lady  were  raised  in  mournful  questioning  to 
Margaret. 

"  Yes,"  said  Margaret,  vaguely. 

"  I  feel  if  I  could  have  some  refined  and 
interestin'  person  around  a  good  part  o'  the 
time  for  company,  it  would  do  me  more  good 
than  all  the  medicines.  What's  your  opinion 
of  prices  ?" 

"  Oh,"  said  Margaret,  blushing  warmly, 
"I  should  think  it  would  hardly  be  worth 
anything !" 

"/should  consider  it  of  some  importance 
if  I  could  be  consoled  and  sympathized  writh 
a  little.  Still,  I  should  want  you  to  have 
dinner  and  supper  with  us,  and  as  I  require 
no  manual  labors  of  you — not  even  sew  in' — 
nor  constant  attentions  I  should  not  desire, 
but  only  just  to  have  ye  around,  so  I  could 
get  at  ye  when  I  want  ye.  What  do  you 
say  to  seven  cents  an  hour — fifty -six  cents  a 
day?" 

"  I  consider  it  extremely  generous." 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  43 

"  I  should  wish  you  to  stay  stormy  nights — 
I'm  always  particularly  lonely  then,  thinkin' 
o'  the  sea — or  on  any  particular  occasions." 

"  I  would  stay." 

"And  now,  can  you  begin  to-day,  Mrs. 
Stuart — put  on  your  things  and  drive  me 
home?  Eulalie's  fastened  down  in  the  street. 
Captain  drove  me,  but  he  has  business  to 
stay  in  town,  and  he  said  you,  being  a  young 
woman,  could  probably  steer  me  home." 

"Certainly,  I  can  drive."  But  Margaret 
did  not  yet  know  The  Meanest  Horse  that 
Ever  Lived.  Eulalie,  rough,  lean  of  neck 
and  corpulent  of  stomach,  stood  in  the  shafts 
of  a  smart  phaeton,  half  of  an  evil  eye  cocked 
over  her  blinder  discriminatingly  at  Margaret 
as  she  came  down  the  path.  Margaret,  with 
some  experience  and  an  instinctive  appreci- 
ation of  horse-flesh,  regarded  that  eye  and 
form  and  sighed. 

"She  is  well  tied,"  she  said,  tentatively, 
lingering  a  labyrinth  of  ropes. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Herkimer,  climbing  into 
the  vehicle.  "  Captain  turned  her  round  and 
headed  her  for  home,  and  she  needs  tyin' 


44  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

under  them  circumstances.  When  you  get 
to  the  last  knot,  you  want  to  make  quick 
step  to  the  carriage,  or  she'll  go  off  and  leave 

ye." 

Margaret  sprang  the  last  knot  warily,  and 
rushed,  only  to  go  down  the  street,  poised 
like  an  acrobat,  on  the  carriage  step.  Pant- 
ing, she  gained  her  seat,  and  Mrs.  Herkimer 
handed  her  the  lines. 

"  Now  you  want  to  saw  on  her,"  said  the 
captain's  lady,  with  dignified  admonition, 
for  Eulalie,  under  these  auspices,  had  gained 
a  rattling  rate  of  speed.  Margaret  sawed 
energetically,  and,  with  a  flirt  of  her  tail 
that  said,  "  I'll  have  you  later  on,"  Eulalie 
subsided  into  a  fickle  trot,  and  a  little  later 
into  an  indomitable  walk. 

"  She'll  start  up  fast  enough  when  she  sees 
the  watering-trough  in  the  square,"  said  Mrs. 
Herkimer;  and  indeed  at  the  first  glimpse 
of  that  prospective  basin,  the  unlovely  beast's 
every  fibre  became  imbued  with  a  stony  im- 
petus of  self-will.  Leaning  far  forward,  and 
wrenching  the  bit  from  side  to  side  of  the 
creature's  sin -hardened  mouth,  Margaret 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  45 

brought  up  at  the  tub  with  a  mere  side 
clearing  of  one  shaft,  and  Eulalie  bent  her 
head  to  drink.  Margaret's  silent  prayer  was 
that  she  would  there  drink  until  she  died. 
This,  though  swelling  visibly  with  watery 
greed,  Eulalie  refused  to  do. 

"You  done  very  well,"  said  Mrs.  Herki- 
mer.  "  She's  broke  three  shafts  on  captain." 

Margaret's  eyes  were  big  and  her  face 
white.  "What  will  she  do  next?"  she  in- 
quired with  exceeding  calm,  straightening 
her  gloves. 

"  You  don't  need  no  particular  directions 
now  till  you  get  to  the  home  turn  ;  only  saw 
her  down  when  she  gets  to  goin'  too  fast." 

Thus  with  alternate  snail-pace  and  frenzy 
they  came  to  a  hill.  Eulalie  stopped,  turned 
her  head  around,  and  regarded  them  with 
decision.  "We've  got  to  walk  up,"  sighed 
Mrs.  Herkimer,  descending.  "  Sometimes 
she'll  claw  right  up  it." 

"  She'll  claw  right  up  it  with  me  to-day  !" 
said  Margaret,  taking  out  the  whip,  a  mad 
joy  in  her  eyes. 

"  Well,  now,  dear  Mrs.  Stuart,  I'd  just  as 


40  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

soon  she  wouldn't  spoil  my  carriage.  Cap- 
tain's tried  it.  She  only  just  stands  and 
kicks." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Margaret,  alighting,  and 
taking  Eulalie  by  the  bit.  Eulalie  snapped 
at  her.  Margaret  lifted  her  gloved  hand  and 
gave  her  a  ringing  slap  across  the  snout,  after 
which  mutual  expressions  of  regard  they 
toiled  up  the  hill  together. 

"Do  you  like  her?"  said  Margaret,  after 
desperately  staying  the  brute  for  Mrs.  Her- 
kimer's  reseating,  and  taking  another  acro- 
batic race  on  the  carriage  stirrup. 

"  Oh  yes ;  I  think  a  horse  is  safer  that 
you're  on  the  lookout  for;  then  you  ain't 
ever  taken  off  your  guard.  You'll  like  her 
when  you  get  to  know  her.  There's  nothin' 
like  knowing  a  horse.  You  want  to  be  care- 
ful, takin'  the  turn  to  the  driveway ;  she's 
apt  to  slew  there." 

If  slewing  consisted  in  rounding  the  curve 
on  the  two  right  wheels  of  the  vehicle  while 
the  other  two  whizzed  spherically  in  air, 
Eulalie  certainly  accomplished  that  object 
in  spite  of  Margaret's  exertions.  At  the 


STUAKT   AND    BAMBOO  47 

door  she  stopped  with  a  suddenness  that 
considerably  assisted  Mrs.  Herkimer  in  her 
descent,  and  Margaret  stepped  down  breath- 
less. 

"  I  think,"  said  she,  in  that  fine,  languid 
voice  of  hers,  and  leaning  up  against  the  first 
convenient  object — "  I  think,  Mrs.  Herkimer, 
I've  earned — earned  my  first  seven  cents !" 
The  voice  broke  in  merriment. 

Mrs.  Herkimer  glanced  up,  at  first  won- 
deringly,  then  slowly  dropped  her  parcels 
and  laughed  till  the  tears  rolled  down  her 
cheeks. 

"  Helen,"  said  she  to  a  grave  beauty  who 
appeared  in  the  doorway,  "  this  is  Mrs.  Stu- 
art. I  don't  know  when  I've  been  chirked 
up  so!" 

Helen  gave  Margaret's  hand  a  shy  but 
homely  clasp. 

"  Now  follow  me,  Mrs.  Stuart."  Through 
velvet  drawing-rooms  Margaret  followed 
the  majestic  tread  of  the  captain's  lady,  and 
up  a  wide  staircase.  "  There  is  your  room,  to 
wash  your  hands  or  arrange  your  hair,  or 
when  you  stay  overnight." 


48  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

It  was  a  very  handsome  room,  but  the  imp 
that  sometimes  took  possession  of  Margaret's 
eyes  shone  broad  in  them  still,  and  meeting 
them  Mrs.  Ilerkimer  yielded  again  to  the 
subtle  instinct  of  laughter. 

"  Really,  something's  chirked  me  up  amaz- 
in' !  Wander  around  till  dinner-time  where 
ye  like,  Mrs.  Stuart :  get  acquainted  with  the 
premises.  That,"  she  added,  in  her  former 
sombre  tone, "  was  my  only  child — my  daugh- 
ter Helen." 

"  I  thought  her  charming,"  said  Margaret, 
now  quite  earnestly. 

"  She's  a  good  girl.  She's  engaged  to  marry 
Jeffrey  Sprague." 

"  Yes,  I've  heard  the  name." 

"  She's  melancholic.  It's  in  the  family.  I 
had  a  brother  drowned  himself.  He  left  me 
thirty  thousand  dollars.  You'll  see  the  well 
when  you  go  out." 

Mrs.  Herkimer's  eyes  were  pitiful.  Marga- 
ret looked  a  sympathy  she  could  not  speak. 

"  I  hope  Jeffrey  '11  pet  her.  Captain's  a 
good  man,  but  he  don't  understand  how 
much  folks  need  pettin'  sometimes." 


STUAKT   AND   BAMBOO  49 

Margaret  wandered  about  the  grounds,  but 
she  had  a  secret  sense  that  Mrs.  Herkimer 
was  watching  from  a  window  to  see  if  she 
noticed  the  well ;  so  she  went  and  leaned 
pensively  on  the  curb. 

In  the  same  fashion,  at  the  dinner-table,  as 
the  captain's  lady  lifted  her  glass,  Margaret 
looked  and  saw  her  tearful  eyes  fixed  ap- 
pealingly  upon  her. 

"  How  long  since  you  lost  your  brother  ?" 
she  inquired,  in  tender  tones. 

"  Three  years— but  of  course  this  always 
reminds  me — 

"Nonsense!"  interposed  Captain  Herki- 
mer. "  I  never  think  on't !  He  wa'n't 
in  there  but  three  hours,  and  we  had  it 
all  pumped  out.  Where  'd  yer  get  this 
meat?" 

"  I  got  it  at  the  most  expensive  place  in 
town,  Captain  Herkimer." 

"  Ye  might  just  as  well  'a'  gone  where  'twas 
cheap,"  said  the  captain,  sawing,  even  as  one 
was  required  to  saw  upon  the  bit  of  the 
malignant  Eulalie. 

Mrs.  Herkimer  glanced  knowingly  at  Mar- 


50  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

garet,  as  much  as  to  say,  "  Is  it  not  as  I  told 
you?" 

There  was  an  air  of  gloom  over  the  table, 
to  which  Helen,  the  daughter,  seemed  nat- 
urally to  assent,  but  the  captain  chafed. 

"Eat  the  greens,  then,"  said  Mrs.  Herki- 
mer,  solemnly ;  "  they're  better  food  for  ye, 
now  that  your  workin'-days  are  over." 

"By  God!"  said  the  captain,  still  sawing, 
"  bring  home  such  a  piece  o'  meat  as  this, 
and  then  say  my  workin'-days  are  over !"  and 
he  laughed  in  defiance  of  the  whole  board. 

"  Mrs.  Stuart,"  said  the  captain's  lady,  re- 
ferring her  directly  to  another  guest  at  the 
table,  a  chance  visitor — "  Mrs.  Cap'n  Roberts 
is  sitting  in  the  very  chair  that  her  husband 
set  in  last  time  he  was  to  this  house  before 
he  died  o'  heart  disease.  She  was  sitting 
in  it  in  the  west  parlor  before  dinner,  and 
I  had  it  brought  out  for  her.  She  comes 
sometimes  to  set  in  it." 

"  Captain  Iloberts  was  a  good  man,"  said 
Captain  Ilerkimer,  with  cheerful  sincerity. 
"  He  wouldn't  have  joined  in  with  any  such 
dumbed  nonsense." 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  51 

"  Captain  Herkimer,  are  you  a  Methodist?" 

"  I  am." 

"  Oh,  I  was  under  the  impression  that 
maybe  you  was  a  free-thinker !" 

"  So  I  be.  Have  some  blueberry  sauce, 
Tilly,"  said  he,  winking  engagingly  at  Mrs. 
Roberts's  little  girl. 

"  I'm  sick  of  blueberry  sauce,"  replied  the 
little  girl,  despondently  ;  "  we  have  it  all  the 
time  to  home." 

Meanwhile  Mrs.  Roberts  had  been  holding 
her  handkerchief  to  her  eyes.  Mrs.  Herki- 
mer now  looked  desperately  at  Margaret, 
as  one  who  was  even  under  stipend  to  con- 
sole. 

"  It  is  very  sad,"  said  the  latter,  tasting 
the  actual  bitterness  of  a  small  daisy  that 
had  mingled  with  her  greens — "it  is  very 
sad,"  she  went  on,  biting  her  sweet  lips,  "  to 
lose  any  one  so  dear  in  so  sudden — 

"  Say,  Nell,"  said  the  captain  to  his  wife, 
triumphantly  dancing  a  trio  of  burdocks  on 
the  blade  of  his  knife,  "  do  you  think  that 
colored  lady  you've  got  in  the  kitchen  un- 
derstands sortin'  greens  ?" 


53  STUAET   AND    BAMBOO 

"  She  belongs  to  the  same  church  you  and 
I  do,  Captain  Herkiraer." 

"Why,  Nell !  Why,  what  the  devil,"  said 
the  Captain  reasonably  and  argumentative- 
]y — "  what  difference  does  it  make  what 
church  she  belongs  to,  her  sortin'  greens  ?" 

"  I  have  said  what  I  have  said." 

"  I  know  ye  have,  and  I  wish  to  thunder 
there  was  more  sense  to  it.  What  ye  go'n' 
to  have  for  dessert  ?" 

"  Our  dessert  to-day  you'll  soon  see.  What 
our  final  dessert  is  to  be—  Mrs.  Herkimer 
paused  with  excess  of  meaning.  "  Life  is 
short,"  she  at  length  concluded. 

"  Wall,  I'm  glad  there's  somethirf  short," 
said  Captain  Herkimer,  without  a  sigh,  "  for 
I'm  darned  sure  this  gingerbread  ain't !" 

In  the  awful  silence  that  followed,  some 
thing  occurred — the  sad  little  girl  giggled. 

The  captain's  face  broke  into  approving 
smiles.  "That's  right,  Tilly!  You  and  I 
ain't  got  hypochondry,  have  we?  Come, 
ladies,"  said  he,  straightening  his  fine  figure, 
after  having  made,  in  spite  of  these  unflat- 
tering digressions,  a  very  wholesome  and 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  53 

satisfactory  meal,  "  the  tide  serves.  Put  on 
your  things,  and  come  down  for  a  sail." 

Helen's  dark  eyes  lifted  for  the  first  time 
with  a  gleam  of  joy. 

"  Presently,  captain,"  said  Mrs.  Herkimer, 
gravely  concealing  her  own  elation.  "  We'll 
go  up  to  the  cupola  first  and  get  weighed 
and  take  the  view." 

"  Gad !  do  ye  weigh  yer  company  afore 
dinner,  too?"  chuckled  the  captain.  But  Mrs. 
Herkimer  proceeded  to  lead  to  the  execution 
of  these  rites  with  unaffected  solemnity. 


CHAPTER  IV 

"  THROUGH  all  my  trials  and  sufferin's," 
said  Mrs.  Herkimer,  with  significant  re- 
proach in  the  direction  of  the  captain,  "  I've 
never  been  petted  before;  but  Mrs.  Stuart 
understands  me." 

"  She  pet  ye !"  said  the  captain.  "  She's  all 
o'  thirty  years  younger  'n  you  be !" 

"Sympathy  is  somethin'  that,  if  it  ain't 
given  to  you  by  nature,  you  may  be  as  gray 
as  a  snow-storm"  (now  the  captain's  curly 
head  was  gray)  "  and  still  you  won't  have 
it." 

A  particularly  handsome  old  dog  rose  up 
at  the  doorway  and  prepared  to  follow  them. 

"  No,  Stack,  you  can't  go!"  said  Mrs.  ller- 
kimer,  with  a  firmness  not  calculated  to  be 
gainsaid.  "  You'll  be  jumping  out  o'  the 
boat  into  the  water,  and  then  coining  back 
and  shakin'  it  all  over  us." 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  55 

Stack  looked  at  her  with  his  sublime 
brown  eyes,  too  noble  for  resentment,  too 
sad  and  loving  for  reproach,  and  lay  down 
again. 

But,  lo !  as  they  took  the  path  around  the 
corner  of  the  lawn,  there,  with  genial  wel- 
come, and  nothing  sneakish  in  his  expres- 
sion, stood  Stack  waiting. 

"  Captain  Herkimer,  make  that  dog  go 
home !" 

"  Go  home,  Stack !" 

Stack  turned  his  huge  frame  with  unof- 
fended  dignity  and  trotted  back. 

They  went  along  the  road  and  turned  into 
the  lane,  and  there,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
bars,  his  face  of  solemn,  loving  congratula- 
tion turned  full  towards  them,  again  stood 
Stack,  waiting. 

"  Captain  Herkimer,  can  you  be  obeyed  by 
your  OAvn  dog  ?" 

"  Stack !  Go  home !"  thundered  the  cap- 
tain. 

Again  Stack  gravely  turned  and  disap- 
peared. 

The  big  boat  was  anchored  at  some  little 


56  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

distance  in  the  bay ;  the  dory  for  passage 
to  it  waited  on  the  beach,  and  when  they 
reached  this  latter  and  looked  out,  there,  up- 
right beside  the  main-mast,  gazing  fondly 
and  expectantly  towards  them,  sat  Stack. 

"He's  swum  out  to  her?"  said  the  captain, 
delightedly. 

"  You'd  ought  to  had  a  large  family  to 
bring  up,"  said  his  lady,  with  serene  sar- 
casm ;  "  it's  a  pity  to  have  such  trainin'  gifts 
as  yours  wasted !" 

But  it  was  perfectly  evident  that  the  ti- 
rade about  Stack  had  been  a  mere  formal- 
ity, and  that  both  these  partners  in  life's 
joys  were  equally  satisfied  with  his  ad- 
venture. 

"Ye're  pretty  hefty  women.  I'll  paddle 
ye  over  one  to  time,"  said  the  captain.  "  She's 
a  little  dory,  and  she  leaks.  Set  square  amid- 
ships, Nell." 

"  If  I'd  sailed  to  the  world's  end  with  ye 
a  few  more  times  than  what  I  have.  Captain 
Herkimer,  perhaps  I'd  need  instructions  how 
to  set  in  a  dory." 

The  captain  sculled,  and  the  majestic  form 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  57 

of  Mrs.  Herkimer  was  soon  descried  sitting 
beside  Stack. 

"Now,  Mrs.  Stuart,"  said  the  captain,  lift- 
ing the  dory  at  one  end  and  letting  out  a 
cataract  of  water  on  the  beach,  "  set  just 
where  Mrs.  Herkimer  did,  and  do  jest  as  I 
tell  ye,  and  don't  worry.  I  shall  get  ye  over 
afore  she  fills." 

Calmly  taking  her  life  in  her  hand,  as  it 
seemed  to  her,  at  seven  cents  an  hour,  Mar- 
garet stepped  in.  The  race  was  exciting,  and 
the  result  appeared  doubtful.  She  wrapped 
her  skirts  about  her  and  put  her  feet  on  the 
box  in  front  of  her,  as  she  had  seen  Mrs. 
Herkimer  do,  while  the  green  surges  of  the 
sea  lapped  ever  higher  against  the  sides  of 
the  dory. 

The  captain,  with  his  back  towards  her, 
stood  erect,  wielding  one  oar,  and  as  he 
brought  up  alongside  the  boat,  Margaret 
rose  with  the  intention  of  getting  aboard 
with  as  little  delay  as  possible,  but  the  dory 
gave  an  unexpected  lurch ;  she  caught  wild- 
ly at  the  captain's  coat-tails — 

"  What  in  hell  ye  doin'  ?"  cried  he,  as  they 


58  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

were  both  precipitated  to  the  bilgy  floor  of 
the  dory.  "  Never  mind,"  he  added,  with 
tender  apology,  on  recovering  himself,  "  the 
salt  water  won't  hurt  ye.  But  ye  came  pret- 
ty near  capsizin'  us.  Now  wait,  and  do  jest 
as  I  say.  I  want  ye  always  to  wait  my 
word  when  ye're  seafarin'  with  me." 

"  I  will,"  said  Margaret,  climbing  over  into 
the  boat  with  the  meek  look  of  one  who  has 
suffered  watery  eclipse. 

But  Mrs.  Herkimer  sat  convulsed  with  si- 
lent laughter.  As  one  who  has  sailed  the 
seas,  and  is  conversant  with  all  the  devices 
of  that  lore,  Margaret's  performance  appealed 
most  keenly  to  her  sense  of  the  ludicrous. 
She  tried  to  stem  her  mirthful  tears,  but 
could  not. 

"I  seem  very  successful  in  chirking  you 
up,"  said  Margaret,  languidly  and  sweetly. 
But  Stack  came  over  to  the  humiliated  one, 
his  coat  still  dripping,  and  shook  the  salt 
water  over  those  portions  of  her  garments 
not  yet  submerged,  and  looked  up  at  her 
gravely,  straightforwardly,  so  great  a  meas- 
ure of  valiant  love  in  his  human — truer  than 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  59 

human  —  eyes  that  Margaret  instinctively 
reached  out  her  hand  and  laid  it  on  his 
head.  He  steadily  composed  himself  beside 
her,  and  there  remained. 

When  the  "tacking"  sail  struck  her  hat 
off,  Stack  lifted  it  to  her  in  his  mouth  with 
sublime  expression,  and  its  tooth  -  indented 
surface  suffered  nothing  in  her  estimation 
thereby. 

"  How  beautifully  you  steer !"  she  said  to 
Helen. 

"  She  minds  the  helium  as  well  as  I  do !" 
said  Captain  Herkimer. 

"I  love  it!"  said  the  girl  in  a  low  tone, 
with  glowing  eyes,  to  Margaret — "  I  love  it 
so,  I  think  sometimes  I  ought  not  to  come, 
just  to  try  myself." 

"  Nonsense,  child  !  Isn't  this  wind  strong 
enough  to  blow  such  misconceptions  out  of 
your  head  ?" 

"  Why,"  said  the  girl,  very  sadly,  after  a 
pause,  "aren't  you  a  Christian?" 

"  Yes,  surely,"  said  Margaret,  smiling. 

"  And  don't  you  deny  yourself  things  you 
love?" 


60  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

"  Nothing  legitimate — that  I  can  get." 

Stack  thumped  his  tail  appreciatively  on 
the  floor.  Mrs.  Herkimer  turned — "  You've 
got  a  friend  that  '11  stand  by  you  now,"  she 
said,  indicating  Stack. 

"  He  doesn't  laugh  at  me,"  said  Margaret. 

This  opened  afresh  the  fountains  of  Mrs. 
Herkimer's  mirth.  But  Margaret  had  an 
unsought  revenge  when,  later,  as  they  two 
were  wending  their  way  homeward  up  the 
lane  together,  she  climbed  lightly  over  the 
fence,  and  was  proceeding  to  put  down  the 
bars  for  the  captain's  lady. 

"  I  prefer  to  climb  it,"  said  the  latter,  with 
solid  dignity. 

She  was  very  stout,  and  reached  the  top 
rail  laboriously.  There  the  progress  of  her 
adventures  became  uncertain,  and  she  sat, 
fearfully  poised,  a  limb  on  either  side. 

"Let  yourself  down  gently  right  into  my 
arms,"  said  Margaret,  "  I  am  strong." 

"  When  I  come,  I  mean  to  come  altogeth- 
er," replied  Mrs.  Herkimer.  "No;  I  wish 
you,  Mrs.  Stuart,  to  climb  up  here  and  steady 
that  other  foot  over ;  then  I  can  descend." 


STUART    AND    BAMBOO  61 

Margaret  did  so,  but  as  they  both  sat 
thus  deliberating  and  wrestling  on  the  fence, 
a  victoria,  drawn  by  two  horses  with  gold- 
mounted  harnesses,  came  richly  tinkling 
down  the  lane. 

"Let  me  assist  you,  ladies,  I  beg,"  said 
the  unctuous  voice  of  the  elder  Sprague. 

Margaret,  without  assistance,  was  on  ter- 
ra firma  in  an  instant.  Mrs.  Herkimer  sol- 
emnly committed  herself  to  the  arms  of  the 
richest  man  in  Yarmouth. 

"  I  am  passing  your  way,  and  I  beg  that 
you  will  do  me  the  honor,"  said  he,  animat- 
edly pointing  the  wray  to  the  carriage. 

"I  will  walk  with  Stack,  thank  you,"  said 
Margaret. 

"  I  wish  you  to  accompany  me,"  said  Mrs. 
Herkimer,  in  a  resonant  whisper.  "I  have 
something  to  say,  and  I  need  you  to  support 
me  through  it." 

Blushing  madly — at  seven  cents  an  hour — 
Margaret  followed  Mrs.  Herkimer  into  the 
carriage,  where  the  latter  sat  as  though  it 
belonged  to  her. 

"  How  old  was  your  wife  when  she  died, 


63  STUAET   AND   BAMBOO 

Judson?"  said  she,  gravely,  without  other 
initiative. 

"  Ah — sixty  ;  yes,  sixty — a  few  months 
over,  Mrs.  Herkimer." 

"I  was  indisposed  at  the  time,  but  I've 
heard  that  ye  had  young  men  only — boys 
atxveen  eighteen  and  twenty — for  pall-bear- 
ers!" 

"  Ah — yes ;  a  fancy.  Just  a  fancy,  Mrs. 
Herkimer." 

"  If  s  a  fancy  I  don't  approve  of  in  ye." 

This  was  the  ordeal  Mrs.  Herkimer  had 
anticipated,  and  in  which  she  had  required 
Margaret  to  sustain  her. 

The  autocrat  of  Yarmouth  colored,  and 
looked  at  the  younger  woman  with  humor- 
ous, disagreeably  insinuating,  sweetness. 

Margaret  bit  her  lip  with  conflicting  emo- 
tions and  looked  away. 

"  Since  you  are  staying  at  Yarmouth,  Mrs. 
Stuart,"  said  the  urbane  gentleman,  assisting 
them  to  alight,  "  may  I  have  the  pleasure  of 
calling  upon  you?" 

"  I — I  am  working.    I  do  not  receive  calls." 

"Do  not  say  so.     Ah,  too  bad — too  bad, 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  63 

I  assure  you.  Remember — ah — remember 
you  made  the  '  first  advances,' "  he  warned 
her,  with  a  sort  of  caressing  laughter. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon  for  that — I  was  ill— 
I  had  no  intention " —  said  Margaret,  in  a 
quicker  tone  than  usual,  remembering,  in- 
deed, painfully  the  fishy  missile  with  which 
she  had  once  assailed  him. 

"  Ah,  yes  ;  but  it  struck — it  struck  home," 
he  murmured,  with  his  back  well  turned  tow- 
ards Mrs.  Herkimer,  and  laying  his  plump 
hand  on  the  region  of  his  heart. 

"  I  am  very  glad,  at  least,  if  I  left  a  '  good 
impression,' "  said  Margaret,  showing  her 
white  teeth  a  trifle  maliciously ;  and  she 
walked  away,  giving  room  to  Mrs.  Her- 
kimer, who  was  uneasily  waiting  to  con- 
vey some  other  admonition  to  her  mature 
friend. 

Margaret  walked  up  the  path.  The  Mean- 
est Horse  that  Ever  Lived,  who  was  allowed 
free  range  of  the  premises,  and  of  the  uni- 
verse, too,  for  that  matter,  stood  directly 
athwart  it.  "When  Margaret,  avoiding  her 
heels,  attempted  a  semicircular  movement 


64  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

in  front  of  her,  she  steadily  moved  forward, 
grazing  with  assumed  innocence. 

Margaret,  who  had  wished  to  make  a  dig- 
nified retreat,  now  heard  the  flowery  Sprague 
approaching.  "  Sho !  sho !"  he  cried,  waving 
his  silk  hat.  Eulalie  glanced  at  him,  and 
with  a  loud  squeal  and  a  backward  thrust 
of  her  heels,  shot  at  a  mad  and  wholly  un- 
necessary gallop  out  of  sight. 

Margaret,  with  hot  cheeks  and  bursting 
sensations,  walked  beyond  the  house,  where 
Stack  lay  on  the  lawn  in  the  sun.  She  sat 
down  beside  him,  trembling  with  laughter. 
Stack  did  not  laugh,  but  only  looked  a  benign 
indulgence.  She  took  a  piece  of  pound-cake 
from  her  pocket,  that  Mrs.  Herkimer  had 
given  her  for  her  luncheon,  and  began  to 
feed  him.  Stack  was  fond  of  pound-cake, 
and  dainties  were  rare  with  him  now ;  for, 
in  view  of  his  advanced  years,  the  captain 
had  brought  home  a  new  puppy  to  take  his 
place  when  he  should  be  gone. 

Stack  had  accepted  this  fact,  of  his  own 
volition,  with  a  quietness  and  magnanimity 
exceeding  much  conduct  that  is  called  "Chris- 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  65 

tian."  Margaret  had  seen,  when  the  plate 
of  scraps  was  set  outside  the  door  for  the 
two,  how  the  great  dog  waited  for  the  ado- 
lescent— about  a  tenth  of  his  own  size — to 
consume  the  choicest,  and  only  when  he 
turned  away  satiated  made  his  own  meal 
of  the  remains,  with  the  lofty  indifference 
of  a  sage. 

"I  am  going  to  save  you  the  nicest  of 
everything  I  have,  anywhere.  I  am  going 
to  get  you  some  splendid  pieces  of  meat," 
said  Margaret,  putting  her  arm  around  his 
shaggy  neck. 

"  Oh,  how  sweet  you  are  !  But  don't  rob 
yourself,"  said  the  brown  eyes  in  return. 

"  I  love  to  sit  here  with  you.  I  love  to 
watch  the  sea — at  just  about  this  distance, 
Stack." 

"  Oh,  but  you  need  not  fear  ;  I  could  save 
you  if  you  fell  in.  I've  saved  people  before 
—I  could  do  it  again.  I'm  that  breed." 

"  Yes,  I  believe  you  would."  She  gen- 
tly twisted  some  of  his  hair  into  fantastic 
shapes,  but  Stack  looked  sublime  under  all 
circumstances. 


66  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

When  she  went  towards  the  house  she  was 
surprised  at  the  excessive  kindness  in  the 
captain's  face.  "  I  shall  never  have  another 
dog  like  him,  Mrs.  Stuart,"  said  he,  in  a 
genuinely  tremulous  voice ;  "  but  I  had 
to  get  the  puppy,  ye  see.  Stack's  old,  and 
when— 

"  Oh,  hush  !"  said  Margaret.  "  Don't  say 
it  before  him  /" 

Mrs.  Herkimer,  too,  in  reckoning  up  her 
day's  wage,  beamed  upon  her  like  a  mother. 

"  But  I  haven't  really  earned  it,"  said  Mar- 
garet. "  I'm  sure  I  sat  with  Stack,  just  loaf- 
ing, a  whole  hour  in  the  sun." 

"  I  shouldn't  want  ye  if  ye  didn't  set  with 
Stack,"  said  Mrs.  Ilerkimer,  solemnly  ;  "  he's 
our  friend."  Then,  as  a  last  evidence  of  her 
chirking  up  for  the  day,  her  lip  began  to 
quiver.  "Did  Judson  Sprague  propose  to 

ye?" 

"  Not  definitely ;  he  only  intimated  that 
his  heart  was  open  for  attack." 

"  I  really  don't  think  he's  nothing  worse 
than  an  old  fool." 

"  That  is  hopeful." 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  67 

"  Jeff's  sensible  and  plain — like  his  moth- 
er." 

"  I  should  think  it  likely,  however,  that 
her  place  would  be  tilled  sometime  by  some- 
body." 

"  If  ye  could  make  up  your  mind  to  it," 
continued  the  facetiously  quivering  lips  of 
the  captain's  lady,  "  I  should  be  very  glad 
for  Helen  to  have  ye  for  a  mother-in-law. 
The  man's  going  to  harness  up  Eulalie,"  she 
added,  in  a  matter-of-fact  tone,  "  to  take  ye 
home." 

Margaret  gave  an  involuntary  plaintive 
shriek.  "  Oh,  I  beg  of  you !"  she  added,  with 
ardor;  "I  need  the  exercise.  Let  me  walk 
home.  I  am  going  to  walk  home  along  the 
beach." 

"  I've  heard  it's  fashionable,"  said  Mrs. 
Herkimer,  "to  scrabble  along  over  them 
tormentin'  shore-pebbles  and  salt-water  soak 
your  shoes,  but  folks  here  don't  do  it ;  but 
if  you're  set  on  it,  I'll  countermand  my  or- 
ders. Come  to  -  morrow,  as  early  as  ye  can. 
I  hope  ye  won't  find  me  in  depression." 

As  she  was  going  out  Margaret  passed 


68  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

through  the  parlor  where  Helen  sat  at  the 
piano.  "  Yesterday,"  she  was  singing  sadly 
— "yesterday  I  wandered  in  the  paths  of  sin. 
Yesterday  I—" 

"  Dear  little  girl,"  said  Margaret,  stooping 
an  instant  over  her,  "  you  never  wandered  in 
the  paths  of  sin  in  your  life !" 

Helen  raised  her  eyes  half  doubtfully,  as  if 
to  something  irreligiously  attractive. 

Margaret — after  a  "good-night"  hug  given 
to  Stack,  who  came  and  asked  her  for  it — 
went  down  the  lane  again  to  the  beach, 
strong  in  the  salubrious  wind,  and  thinking 
how  the  great  shadows  of  her  life  seemed 
to  have  melted  before  her  and  given  her  a 
place. 

Enraptured  with  the  sunset,  she  took  the 
stroll  at  her  own  leisure,  until,  about  half  the 
distance  covered,  she  caught  a  glimpse  of 
two  figures  sitting  together  on  a  natural 
shelf  in  a  cave  of  the  cliffs,  well  retired.  It 
was  Mildred  St.  Thomas's  brilliant  parasol, 
obvious,  though  furled  ;  and  the  other,  if 
she  had  known  it,  was  the  burly  form  of 
Jeffrey  Sprague. 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  69 

"  Mildred  has  chosen  a  romantic  place  to 
chat  with  some  admirer,"  thought  Margaret, 
passing,  still  leisurely,  with  her  face  to  the 
sea,  as  though  she  had  not  seen.  No  other 
sign  of  humanity  greeted  her  till  she  had 
climbed  the  rocky  path  and  gained  the 
street ;  there,  astride  the  nearest  lamp-post, 
with  his  legs  encircling  the  cage  at  the  top, 
sat  Plantagenet  Stuart.  Thinking  he  too 
might  be  enjoying  stolen  sweets  as  a  fugi- 
tive from  home,  Margaret  passed  on  obliv- 
iously. 

"  Ahem !  Ahem !"  said  the  arresting  voice 
of  Plantagenet,  much  embarrassed.  It  was 
now  distinctly  revealed  by  the  rays  of  the 
lamp  that  he  had  a  new  cap  on,  and  on  its 
fore-piece  blazed  the  letters,  "  H.M.S.  Mo- 
hawk." 

When  he  perceived  that  Margaret's  eyes 
had  discerned  so  much,  he  lifted  the  cap, 
as  it  were,  incidentally,  careful,  however,  to 
keep  its  blood-curdling  legend  in  the  fore- 
ground. 

"  What  a  beautiful  new  cap  you  have, 
Plantagenet." 


70  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

Blush  after  blush  of  uncontainable  pride 
surged  through  the  grime  of  his  features ;  the 
near  contact  of  the  light  made  celestial  glory 
of  his  tawny,  untracked  mop  of  hair ;  his  face 
gave  suggestions  through  the  dirt  of  some 
wild  flower  going  and  blowing  its  own  glad 
way  in  the  wilderness. 

Margaret  regarded  his  potential  beauty 
with  a  sort  of  pensive  pang  at  the  heart,  and 
went  on ;  presently  she  heard  footsteps  fol- 
lowing. 

"Say!  Would  ye  like  to  take  my  book  on 
Kings  and  Quanes?" 

"Why,  yes,  dear;  but  don't  you  need  it  at 
school?" 

"  Pooh !  'tain't  a  school-book,  it's  interest- 
in'.  Mar  giv'  it  to  me  one  Chris'mas  ;  it's 
on  our  fam'ly — ourn  and  yourn." 

"  Why,  yes,  in  that  case,  I  must  read  it, 
surely.  Bring  it  up  to  my  room  some  time, 
dear." 

"  'Tain't  proper,  is  it,"  said  Plantagenet, 
straightening  himself  to  the  utmost  of  his 
sturdy  twelve  years,  "for  a  gentleman  to 
come  up  to  your  room — is  it  ?" 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  71 

"  Don't  lecture  me  on  propriety,  ray  little 
lad,"  said  Margaret,  laughing.  "It's  quite 
proper  for  a  little  boy  like  you  to  come  up 
to  my  room,  if  I  do  you  the  honor  to  ask 
you,  but  not  to  kick  the  key  out  of  the  door 
for  introduction,  as  you  did  when  you  first 
showed  me  the  way  !" 

"  Gee !"  said  the  proud  one,  gasping, 
"  you're  like  her !" 

"  Like  whom  ?" 

"  Quane  Sen'  Marie  Stuart.  I  tell  ye  she 
was  an  eagle,  she  was  !  She  could  ride  hoss- 
back  ninety-six  miles  to  a  stretch.  Oh,  she 
could  spit,  she  could !  If  I'd  been  a-livin', 
what  happened  to  her  ud  never  'a'  hap- 
pened. I'd  'a'  brought  out  the  Pluck  and 
Liver  Kore !" 

"  Oh,  Plantagenet,  what  is  the  '  Pluck  and 
Liver '  Corps  ?" 

"  It's  my  mil't'ry  comp'ny." 

He  procured  the  book  and  brought  it  up 
to  her  door,  "  H.M.S.  Mohawk"  still  pointed- 
ly displayed  in  his  hand. 

The  book  was  an  excessively  worn  tradi- 
tion of  the  era  of  Mary  Stuart,  so  partisan 


72  STUART    AND    BAMBOO 

in  political  and  religious  tendencies  as  al- 
most to  burn  the  covers ;  and  as  for  its  phys- 
ical qualities,  they  were  so  strongly  evident 
that  every  leaf  seemed,  like  Mrs.  O'Eagan's 
brown  beef,  to  be  "dressed  with  an  onion." 
Margaret  put  it  outside  a  window,  under 
shield  of  the  blind,  there  permanently  to  air 
until  such  time  as  it  should  be  courteous  to 
return  it. 


CHAPTER    V 

A  DAY  or  two  after  this,  as  Margaret  was 
doing  some  shopping  in  the  town,  she  heard 
a  voice  of  indignation  and  menace  : 

"  You  stole  dat  cap !  You  stole  it  out  my 
show-box !" 

A  slighter  and  gentler  Jew  laid  his  hand 
on  the  angry  vender's  arm.  "  "Well,  if  he 
did,  nevertheless  you  are  to  let  him  go,"  said 
Isaac  Gilchrist,  in  a  tone  of  authority  ;  and, 
for  some  reason,  the  wrathful  one  instantly 
relaxed  his  hold. 

"  There !  You  old  'Scariot  Bologny  Sau- 
sage, you !"  cried  the  accused  Plantagenet, 
triumphantly. 

"Come  here,  Pleg!"  said  the  liberator,  in 
a  gentle  and  familiar  way. 

But  without  distinction  in  the  Israelitish 
camp,  Pleg  took  to  his  heels. 

"  Did  he  steal  the  cap  ?''  said  Margaret. 


74  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

"  I'm  afraid  so."  Isaac  lifted  his  hat  with 
a  pleasant  smile  of  greeting.  "  Ah,  he's  a 
wild  boy,  and  if  I  can  keep  the  hand  of  the 
law  off  of  him  to  some  good  account  in  the 
end,  I  shall  have  solved  one  mystery,"  he 
said,  quite  merrily  for  him,  and  walking  on 
with  her  apace  through  the  busy  street. 
"  And  how  is  it  with  you  ?  Are  you  getting 
used  to  us?  Are  you  well?  Are  you  happy  ?" 

"  Oh  yes,  I  am  at  Avork  and  doing  nicely, 
thank  you.  And  do  you  go  about,"  she 
said,  after  a  pause,  demurely,  "delivering 
naughty  boys  out  of  their  prospective  dun- 
geons ?" 

"I?  Ah,  no.  I  am  a  lazy  man.  I  read 
very  much  in  my  room.  I  have  written  and 
published  some  things,  but  on  the  whole  I 
am  too  perplexed  to  write  much." 

His  coarse  but  immaculate  clothes  and 
fine  linen;  his  quiet,  unconscious  manner  of 
authority  piqued  Margaret  with  a  sense  of 
curiosity  and  interest.  But  he  went  on,  in 
his  matter-of-fact  tone: 

"I  am  the  son  of  a  Jew  who  started  in 
business  here  in  a  small  way ;  later,  as  his 


STUAKT   AND   BAMBOO  75 

means  increased,  he  employed  a  tutor  and 
sent  me  abroad.  I  was  an  only  child,  and 
he  and  my  mother  are  both  dead.  I  am  not 
poor.  I  own  the  shop  where  our  little  friend 
appropriated  his  cap — and  other  shops.  T 
suppose  I  might  build  myself  a  house  of 
some  pretensions,  but  I  do  not  seem  to  care 
for  it.  I  am  rather  studying — many  things." 

"If  you  are  studying  humanity  and  its 
philosophies  and  religions  and  come  to  any 
conclusion,  do  let  me  know,"  said  Margaret, 
rather  too  cheerfully  to  inflict  him  with  any 
flattering  sense  of  appreciation. 

"  Oh,  I  would  do  so,"  he  replied,  with  the 
utmost  seriousness ;  "  and  meantime  I  wish 
you  to  understand,"  he  continued,  in  his 
perfectly  unemotional  manner,  "  that  }7ou 
are  to  rely  upon  me ;  you  are  to  come  to  me 
if  there  is  any  trouble  you  do  not  know  how 
to  bear." 

"  Why  ?"  The  incredulous  color  mounted 
to  her  face  and  a  flash  to  her  laughing  eyes. 

"  '  Why  ?' — even  in  the  Old  Book  we  are 
told,  as  we  are  placed,  to  be  kind  to  one 
another,  are  we  not  ?" 


76  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

"  I  think  we  have  rather  grown  to  adapt 
that,  both  in  the  Old  Book  and  the  New,  to 
our  own  articles  of  convenience,"  she  said, 
with  a  pleasant  satire  she  could  not  resist. 

A  look  of  pain  came  over  his  face.  "  That 
is  one  of  ray  perplexities,"  he  said. 

They  were  nearing  the  house  together,  and 
instead  of  suffering  any  sense  of  annoyance 
therefor,  something  of  his  own  impersonal 
seriousness  so  impressed  Margaret  that  his 
company  seemed  rather  to  confer  a  protec- 
tive distinction  upon  her. 

She  held  out  her  hand  to  him.  "  I  did 
not  mean  to  be  flippant.  What  you  say  is 
true;  but  I  think  a  sort  of  hopelessness,  in 
great  things,  has  come  over  us;  at  least, 
when  one  dreads  hard  things  as  I  do,"  she 
added,  with  her  bright  smile,  "  the  exigencies 
of  every-day  existence  are  about  as  much  us 
we  can  contend  with." 

He  looked  at  her  kindly,  with  his  foreign, 
almost  prophetic,  eyes,  and  she  left  him,  not 
without  a  sense  of  relief,  the  groundwork  of 
her  nature  being  substantially  joyous.  So, 
when  she  looked  out  of  her  front  window 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  77 

and  saw  Plantagenet,  under  maledictions 
from  an  upper-story  oracle,  sniffing  volupt- 
uously at  some  parcels  he  was  assisting  the 
grocer's  boy  to  deliver,  her  heart  warmed 
towards  him. 

"  Stop  smellin'  the  issence  out  o'  my  truck, 
ye  little  tormint,  Pleg  Stuart,  or  Til  be  down 
on  ye!"  cried  the  voice;  at  which  Plantag- 
enet drew  so  long  and  loud  a  sniff  at  a  pack- 
age of  coffee  that,  but  for  the  interruption 
caused  by  his  own  excessive  laughter,  it 
seemed  likely  to  burst  its  cerements.  So 
unmixed  a  note  of  joy  Margaret  had  never 
heard,  so  free  from  any  self-conscious  tre- 
mor even  under  reprobation. 

The  Avindow  above  went  down  with  a 
bang,  indicating  that  footsteps  were  about 
to  follow. 

"  Plantagenet !"  called  Margaret,  softly. 
"  Come,  there's  something  in  your  book  I 
want  you  to  explain  to  me."  Almost  be- 
fore she  could  finish  speaking  she  heard  the 
bound  of  his  bare  feet  on  the  backstairs. 
She  let  him  in  and  closed  the  door. 

"  Now   here,"   she   said,  careful    to  take 


78  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

the  book  of  glorious  ancestr}^  in  her  gloved 
hands,  and  turning  the  pages  with  a  quick 
intention  of  finding  the  thing  she  wished. 
"Ah,  here,"  indicating  the  text  with  a  lilac 
kid  finger.  "  '  They  might  be  exterminated, 
but  they  could  not  be  conquered.'  Now,  of 
course,  with  such  a  spirit  as  that,  they — they 
could  not  steal,  could  they,  Plantagenet  ?" 

"  Oh  yes,  they  did !"  cried  the  descendant 
of  kings,  with  eager  information.  "  They  all 
stoled — ships,  and  jew'ls,  and  money,  and— 

"  But  Mary  Stuart,  you  know — our  family 
—she  did  not  steal !" 

"  N — n — o,  she  didn't  steal." 

"  Well,  we  don't  mind  the  rest,  we  want 
to  be  like  our  family.  Now  I  want  you  to 
go  and  take  back  the  cap,  and  tell  the  man 
you  are  sorry  for  what  you  said  to  him." 

"  Well,  I  ain't  goin'  to." 

Margaret  had  worked  around  to  the  door, 
and  she  stood  with  her  back  against  it ;  she 
was  tali  and  vigorous,  but  Plantagenet  too 
had  the  soul  of  the  Stuarts. 

"  I  tell  ye,  I  ain't  goin'  to." 

His  beautiful  deep  eyes  seemed  to  affirm 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  79 

their  purpose  through  a  perpetual  hunger, 
madly  joyful  though  enshaclowecl,  like  Mar- 
garet's own.  But  the  woman  had  the  lon- 
ger experience  in  having  her  own  way,  with 
natural  devices  unknown  to  the  ragged  little 
reprobate  who  confronted  her:  he  seemed 
so  like  herself ;  besides,  with  honest  pity  of 
him,  the  tears  came  to  her  eyes. 

"  Well,  b'  darn,  I'll  go !"  said  he,  like  a 
gentleman. 

" Then  go  and  do  it  quick"  said  Marga- 
ret, gladly  yielding  him  the  door ;  "  go  the 
way  'our  family  '  do  when  they're  out — con- 
quering ;  go  like  Mary,  at  the  rate  of  ninety- 
six  miles  an  hour !" 

She  followed  at  a  distance,  to  purchase 
"H.M.S.  Mohawk"  as  soon  as  it  had  been 
restored  to  the  legitimate  channels  of  trade, 
and  came  home  with  that  identical  cap  in  a 
neat  parcel  under  her  arm. 

Plantagenet,  who  was  drilling  his  corps  in 
the  front  yard,  looked  up  at  her  with  his 
hungry,  merry  eyes  from  under  the  ragged 
unemblematized  head-piece  that  now  formed 
his  flower  of  tournament. 


80  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

The  lilac  finger  beckoned  him  aside. 

"  Did  you  go,  dear  ?" 

"Yes'm." 

"  And  gave  up  the  cap,  and  said  you  were 
sorry  ?" 

"  No !"  said  Plantagenet,  too  proud  of  the 
fact  to  lie  in  this  instance;  "I  thrun  it  at 
him!" 

Margaret  sighed,  not  without  perceptible 
satisfaction.  "With  polite  formalities  of  con- 
cession, she  realized  the  true  Stuart  sense  of 
not  admitting  one's  self  in  the  wrong,  or 
apologizing,  therefore,  to  human  soul.  So 
she  produced  the  cap,  a  full  consciousness 
of  Plantagenet's  atonement  glowing  on  her 
charming  face.  "It  has  been  bought.  It 
is  your  very  own,  now,  dear." 

He  looked  at  it,  then  at  her,  and  with  one 
lionlike  bound  threw  his  arms  around  her 
neck  and  smacked  her  forcibly  and  loudly 
on  the  cheek.  Realizing  his  affront,  humili- 
ation replaced  his  ardor  with  puinful  blushes. 
"I  tell  ye  what  it  is,"  said  he,  sheepishly, 
"  I'm  soft  on  you  !" 

Margaret  went  up  the  stairs  laughing. 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  81 

Mrs.  O'Ragan  took  advantage  of  this  wit- 
ness to  say  proudly  to  Mrs.  Shaughnessy : 
"  Did  it  annoy  ye,  me  dressin'  me  breakfast 
wid  onions  this  mornin',  Mrs.  Shaughnessy, 
ma'am  ?  I  persaved  the  odor  wint  through 
the  house." 

"Not  at  all,  Mrs.  O'Ragan,"  replied  the 
other,  with  an  equal  blandishment  of  society 
grace.  "  Faith,  I  wish  I  had  a  half-dizzen  of 
the  same  on  a  plate  afore  me  this  instant." 

"  Poor  cratur !"  Margaret  heard,  as  she 
closed  her  door  ;  "  to  my  certain  knowledge, 
she  'ain't  had  a  cabbage  bilin'  senct  she  came 
here.  Begorry,  I  sh'd  have  sech  a  cabbage 
thirst  on  me  there'd  be  no  holdin'  me  off. 
I'd  offer  her  a  bit,  only  these  Bamboos  bes 
so  quare." 

"  Thrue  for  ye.  Mrs.  Soollivan  tells  me 
the  Jew  that  takes  his  males  wid  her  niver 
thanks  God  by  atin'  the  hid  of  a  cabbage, 
espicially  if  there's  an  ilegant  bit  o'  pork 
biled  in  wid  it." 

"  All  the  same,  he's  a  good  young  man — 
the  holy  saints  convart  them  both !  But 
hould  the  lady  to  me  for  a  Bamboo,  though 


82  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

she  has  me  o\vn  name,  wid  a  washin'  out 
every  evenin',  like  she  was  playin'  dolls." 

But  it  was  no  play  to  Margaret.  Com- 
posedly changing  her  raiment  as  often  as 
had  ever  been  her  wont,  and  as  though 
such  extreme  fastidiousness  were  an  inflex- 
ible law  of  nature,  she  was  dismayed  to  find 
that  when  she  was  not  consoling  Mrs.  Her- 
kimer  at  seven  cents  an  hour  she  was  bound 
and  wedded  to  the  exigencies  of  her  own 
wash-tub,  at  first  with  bitter  tears  of  weari- 
ness and  vexation,  but  now  evermore  with 
growing  stoicism,  especially  as  the  tenement 
clothes-line  was  weak  and  her  toil  had  often 
to  be  duplicated.  Her  familiar  figure  in 
the  yard,  stringing  her  immaculate  clothing 
along  the  line  in  unskilled  fashion  and  with 
gloved  hands,  provoked  the  gleeful  comment 
of  the  tenement. 

"  'Tis  a  stiddy  washer  ye  are,  Mrs.  Stuart," 
said  Mrs.  O'Ragan,  whistling  through  the 
clothes-pins  she  held  in  her  mouth,  and  who 
had  made  a  feint  of  hanging  out  a  dish-towel 
in  order  to  be  nearer  the  present  source  of  en- 
livenment. 


STLTAKT   AND   BAMBOO  83 

"  Yes,"  said  Margaret,  gravely  and  unsus- 
piciously, "  I  wash  very  steadily." 

"  'Tis  many  a  poor  widdy,"  continued  Mrs. 
O'Kagan,  tentatively,  "  gets  no  insurance  on 
her  man  whin  he  dies.  But,  I  praise  God, 
when  O'Ragan  Stuart  goes,  he'll  be  doin'  me 
wan  good  turn  ony  way.  Faith,  if  such  a  sad 
evint  should  happen,  and  me  able  to  survive 
the  grafe,  I'd  be  better  off  and  aisier  livin'  by 
far,  Mrs.  Stuart,  than  ye  see  me  livin'  this 
day  !" 

Margaret  paused  in  listening  wonder,  with 
the  sleeve  of  a  lace -enshrouded  night-robe 
suspended  in  air. 

"  Sure,  yes,"  continued  Mrs.  O'Kagan,  de- 
lighted with  her  audience  and  forgetting  the 
facetiousness  of  Margaret's  performance  in 
the  delectable  enterprise  of  her  own  imagi- 
nation ;  "  'tis  better  off  I'd  be." 

"  But  if  you  are  fond  of  him  and  would 
feel  the  loss  so,  I  do  not  see  how— 

"  Oh,  begorry,  Mrs.  Stuart,  ma'am  !  "Well, 
thin,  '  'tis  a  wise  cow  that  carries  short 
horns.' ':  With  which  utterance  she  tight- 
ened her  waist-cable  and  departed. 


84  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

"  Hang  it  not  so,"  said  a  new  voice,  and  a 
voice  Margaret  liked  to  hear — "  hang  it  not 
by  de  sleeve,  it  shall  blow  itself  a  rent.  I 
shall  show  you!  I  seen  you,"  continued 
Agnes,  her  comely  face  shining — "  I  seen 
you  wid  my  dear  young  mans." 

"Js  he  young?"  said  Margaret,  wearily. 

"  You  are  tired,  you  are  discusted  wid  so 
much  wash."  Agnes  put  her  young,  moth- 
erly arm  around  her.  "  Come  to  my  rooms, 
now,  soon  it  is  evenin',  and  we  shall  play 
you  'armony." 

Margaret  had  ignored  Agnes  with  the  rest 
of  the  tenement,  socially,  and  now,  depressed 
and  tired,  she  had  a  fancy  for  complying. 

When  she  came,  Agnes  received  her  as 
though  she  were  quite  in  the  habit  of  spend- 
ing her  evenings  there.  Mr.  Sullivan  rose  and 
shook  hands  heartily,  then  retired  with  ex- 
clusive seriousness  to  his  newspaper. 

"  Oh,  this  is  good,  to  find  you  here !"  said 
Isaac  Gilchrist  when  he  entered.  "  I  have 
been  very  anxious  about  you  to-day."  His 
dark  eyes  rested  on  her  a  moment  in  their 
peculiar,  tender,  impersonal  way.  In  her 


STUAKT    AND    BAMBOO  85 

present  mood  this  undeserved  and  uncalled- 
for  regard  was  grateful  to  Margaret.  From 
the  confidence  his  presence  inspired  she  gave 
him,  unconsciously,  in  her  weariness,  a  look 
instinctively  large,  with  despair  and  grati- 
tude almost  childishly  mingled.  A  light 
swept  over  his  dispassionate  face. 

Two  of  Plantagenet's  "  Pluck  and  Liver 
Corps  "  —  Agnes's  youngest,  mere  tin  -  pan 
players — were  partitioned  off  by  a  graceful 
curtain  in  a  section  of  the  drawing-room, 
there  supposed  to  be  slumbering  on  their 
cot  after  the  conflicts  of  the  day.  But  Mar- 
garet, who  had  an  instinctive  affiliation  with 
small  boys,  saw  four  beautiful  brown  eyes 
peering  through  a  convenient  opening  in  the 
draperies  while  Isaac  swept  the  strings  of 
his  violin. 

Conscious  finally  of  this  mutual  regard,  the 
boys  revealed  their  pleasure  by  a  giggle. 

"  Roy !     'Onry !"  said  Agnes,  lovingly. 

"  My  toof  aches,  mamma." 

Agnes  went  to  the  cot  and  took  up  the 
complainant,  and  returned  to  her  chair  with 
him  snuggled  in  her  arms. 


86  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

The  other  night-robed  figure  trotted  across 
the  room  to  his  father,  who  received  him  and 
continued  reading  the  newspaper  over  him. 

It  was  a  scene  so  full  of  homely  peace  and 
affection,  Margaret's  own  heart  sank  to  rest 
—when  Mrs.  O'Ragan  summoned  her  at  the 
door. 

"Is  Mrs.  Stuart  widin?  'Tis  Miss  Duds 
Sen'  Tammy  is  callin',  and  says,  could  she 
see  her  the  wan  moment?  She'll  only  be 
detainin'  her  the  wan  moment." 

Margaret  found  Mildred  waiting  at  her 
door.  "  Don't  light  the  lamp,"  said  the 
girl,  as  they  went  in.  The  moonlight  filled 
the  room.  "  I  suppose  they're  mad  at  me  ?" 

"Who?" 

"  The  Herkimers." 

"  Why,  no — they  always  speak  very  kindly 
of  you!" 

"  Then  you  never  told  them  you  saw  me 
sitting  down  by  the  shore  with  Jeff?  I 
thought  you  wouldn't." 

"  Oh,  was  that  Jeff  ?  I  did  not  notice ;  I 
did  not  know." 

"  Oh,  I  tell  you,  it's  rocky !"  said  Mildred, 


STOAKT   AND    BAMBOO  87 

her  voice  quivering,  almost  breaking,  with 
tears.  "We  do  love  each  other,  Jeff  and 
me.  It's  just  plain — through  quarrels  and 
everything  else  we  come  back  to  it.  It's 
just  like  we  had  a  little  kitchen  together,  all 
warm,  and  the  lamp  lit,  and  the  table  set. 
Jeff's  plain — his  mother  was  a  working  girl; 
and  anyway  it's  me  Jeff's  wants;  it  ain't 
Helen  Herkimer." 

"  I  can  hardly  blame  him  !" 

"  Then  you  don't  think  I  ought  to  give 
him  up  ?"  said  Mildred,  eagerly.  "  We  can 
go  away  together  and  work  —  he's  willing 
enough." 

Margaret  had  never  given  up  any  one  she 
loved  except  by  the  inexorable  law  of  death. 

"Is  Helen  very  fond  of  him,  do  you 
fancy  ?" 

"  Oh,  she — she — just  worships  him,  the 
way  that  kind  does  wild  boys." 

"  Mildred,  dear,  I  don't  know  what  to  say. 
I—  Ask  Agnes,"  was  on  her  lips  to  say. 
Isaac  Gilchrist's  face,  set  calmly,  without 
even  the  shadow  of  conscious  self-abnega- 
tion amid  the  stormy  passions  of  life,  rose 


88  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

before  her.  "  But  for  Helen's  sake  this  must 
not  be  known.  Perhaps  it  will  all  come 
right.  Be  patient — wait — 

Mildred  hid  her  face  by  the  bed  in  a  storm 
of  sobs. 

"  It  won't  come  right,  I  know  well  enough. 
You  say  there's  a  good  God ;  then  why  did 
He  put  us  here  just  to  worry  us  and  torment 
us?" 

It  was  a  question  not  unknown  to  Mar- 
garet in  desperate  hours,  with  set  lips  si- 
lently. It  rushed  upon  her  now,  and  she 
hid  her  face  beside  the  girl's. 

"  I  don't  know.  I  don't  know  why,  in  one 
way  and  another,  He  takes  away  the  good, 
sweet  things  we  love,  and  leaves  us  in  the 
cold  and  dark,  desolate.  But  even  so,  I  must 
love  or  I  shall  die!  And  I  love  you,  Mil- 
dred. It  isn't  like  his  young,  dear  love,  I 
know,  but  oh,  I  love  you !  And  the  ques- 
tion you  have  asked  is  all  too  ready  to  come 
to  me.  Don't  let  it  make  shipwreck  of  us 
— help  me,  Mildred  !  help  me !" 

The  girl  was  used  to  self-sacrifice,  the 
woman  quivered  at  the  touch  of  pain. 


STUART    AND    BAMBOO  89 

The  grave  look  of  self-control  came  back 
to  Mildred's  tear-stained  face.  "  I'm  wicked 
and  cruel  to  bring  such  troubles  of  mine  to 
you." 

"  No,  you  would  be  cruel  not  to  come. 
Will  you  remember  that?  for  it  is  true. 
Promise  me  to  remember  in  this  or  any 
trouble,  you  are  cruel  not  to  come."  Her 
strong,  slender  fingers  grasped  the  girl's 
hard  hand. 

"  I  can't  see  that  —  I  can't  see  anything 
much;  but  I  feel  somehow  like  a  taut  line 
just  draws  me  here  when  I'm  rocky — and 
I'm  all  right  now." 

"  Oh,  the  poor,  poor  girl !"  moaned  Mar- 
garet when  she  was  gone.  "  If  we  could  all 
only  be  like  Isaac  Gilchrist  —  loveless,  hu- 
manitarian, emotionless,  studying  life,  not 
drowned  in  it !"  Again  his  dark  eyes  seemed 
to  dwell  upon  her  face — "  'I  have  been  very 
anxious  about  you  to-day.' ':  Margaret  bit 
her  lip  in  the  silence  and  smiled.  "  He 
seemed  to  know — the  old  young  Hebrew — 
that  I  was  away  down,  down  in  the  marsh- 
lands of  'Despond'  to-day;  he  seemed  to 


90  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

know  that  I  do  not  very  well  know  how  to 
live;  he  seemed  actually  to  know  that  I  have 
just  a  dollar  and  seventy  cents  in  this  wide 
world!  I  must  go  early  to-morrow  and 
comfort  Mrs.  Herkimer,  and  make  a  bit  of 
money." 


CHAPTER  VI 

MRS.  HEKKIMER  was  standing  at  the  gate 
with  a  spy-glass. 

At  first  Margaret  was  flattered  to  think  it 
was  bearing  directly  upon  her,  in  anxiety  for 
her  approach;  but  her  patroness  only  said, in 
an  agitated  voice,  "  Have  you  seen  Eulalie  ?" 

"  I  trust  not  !'*  said  Margaret,  firmly.  "  All 
the  horses  in  town  not  happening  to  be  in 
harness  at  this  particular  time,  are  feeding 
along  the  highway  as  usual,  but  I  am  thank- 
ful to  say  I  did  not  see  Eulalie." 

Mrs.  Herkimer's  mouth  twitched.  "  I  no 
sooner  see  you  than  I  begin  to  get  chirked  up. 
Captain's  been  off  lookin'  for  her  this  hour. 
Our  young  minister's  sick,  and  I  feel  called 
to  go  and  see  him,  and  I  want  you  to  accom- 
pany me,  but  it's  too  far  to  walk.  If  it 
wasn't  for  the  responsibility  of  money  I 
could  wish  that  Helen  had  chosen  him  in- 


92  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

stead  of  that  wild  Jeff."  A  hope  for  Mil- 
dred sprang  in  Margaret's  heart.  "  But,"  con- 
tinued Mrs.  Herkimer,  emphatically,  "mon- 
ey is  a  great  responsibility ;  and  besides,  as 
a  husband,  Helen  can't  abide  the  thought 
of  him.  She's  like  all  the  rest  of  us — she's 
fixed  her  heart  where  perhaps  she  ain't  like- 
ly to  get  consoled." 

She  sighed  significantly,  fixing  her  spy- 
glass on  the  captain,  returning  from  unsuc- 
cessful search,  in  the  distance. 

Stack,  whom  Margaret  had  meanwhile 
caressed  with  that  special  fondness  which 
prevailed  between  the  two,  now  tugged  at 
her  skirts. 

"  Go  see  what  he  wants,"  said  Mrs.  Herki- 
mer, solemnly.  "  Stack  always  means  some- 
thing when  he  does  that." 

Margaret  followed.  In  behind  Mrs.  Her- 
kimer's  rose-tree  at  the  south  wing  Stack 
revealed  and  disclosed  Eulalie  nibbling  at 
those  precious  blossoms,  and  leaning,  for 
greater  security,  against  the  side  of  the 
house. 

"  Oh,   you    naughty,   naughty    Eulalie !" 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  93 

cried  Mrs.  Herkimer,  with  dignified  re- 
proach. 

The  captain,  now  appearing,  sprang  in  and 
caught  her. 

"  I'm  sorry  you  found  her,  Stack,  dear  old 
fellow !"  said  Margaret,  while  she  was  being 
harnessed.  "  Oh,  Stack,  you  would  not  have 
found  her  if  you  knew  how  I  hate  to  drive 
her!" 

"  I  know  !"  said  Stack.  "  I  guess  I  know ! 
But  you  are  trying  to  please,  and  you  must 
do  the  best  you  can — the  best  you  can." 

"  I've  discovered  this  left  rein's  kinder 
weak,"  said  the  captain,  cheerfully,  as  they 
climbed  in  ;  "  don't  twitch  up  on  her  there." 

As  Eulalie's  special  crime  was  hard-bitted- 
ness,  the  prospect  was  more  than  ever  en- 
couraging. But  Stack  watched  them  off 
with  benign  wistfulness.  Invariably  with 
them  on  the  water,  he  was  obedient  in  not 
following  the  highway  enterprises  of  Mrs. 
Herkimer's  chariot ;  the  frightened  ejacula- 
tions of  the  women  at  his  size,  the  whistling 
away  and  scattering  of  mongrel  dogs,  the 
awesome  and  ever -retreating  gaze  of  the 


94  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

small  boys,  all  greatly  deterred  him  with 
the  unmerited  pangs  of  an  honest  heart. 

Meanwhile  Eulalie,  inflated  with  her  feast 
of  roses,  shot  forth  at  her  own  ugly,  spas- 
modic, ranting  pace. 

"  You  like  her  better,  now  you're  getting 
to  know  her,  don't  you?"  said  the  captain's 
lady,  seriously. 

"  No,"  said  Margaret ;  "  I  consider  that 
remark  only  the  fateful  acceptance  of  an 
apothegm.  She  inspires  me  continually  with 
ever-deeper  forebodings  of  calamity  and  dis- 
aster." 

Mrs.  Herkimer  laughed.  "  Don't  you  no- 
tice," she  said,  "  that  she  never  breaks?" 

"  A  break  from  her  present  gait,  whatever 
it  might  be,  would  be  agreeable." 

The  phaetons  of  Yarmouth,  like  its  life- 
boats, were  constructed  to  contend  with  any 
sea;  so,  a  wide  berth  being  given  them,  they 
rattled  on,  broad  in  the  beam  and  mighty  in 
the  hub,  to  their  destination. 

"Will  you  come  in  with  me?" 

The  view  was  fine,  and — "  No,"  said  Mar- 
garet, "  I  would  rather  stay  here." 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  95 

"If  the  little  crazy  house -keeper  comes 
out,  you  mustn't  mind.  She's  as  innocent 
as  harmless,  and  she's  a  remarkable  cook." 

In  view  of  a  tete-a-tete  with  a  lunatic, 
Margaret  stepped  out  and  cabled  Eulalie  to 
the  post.  She  had  but  regained  her  seat 
when  a  sprightly  little  old  figure  came  fly- 
ing down  the  path  and  sprang  up  beside  her. 

"I've  been  waiting  for  you!"  she  cried, 
embracing  her  eagerly.  "  I  knew  you'd 
come !  Oh,  I  knew  you'd  come !" 

"  Yes,"  said  Margaret,  kindly,  "  I  have 
come." 

A  new  thought  came  to  the  airy  brain. 
She  tripped  into  the  house  and  reappeared 
with  a  steaming  cup  of  tea.  Again  she  van- 
ished and  returned  with  cakes  and  jelly. 

" Now,  no  more,  dear,"  said  Margaret;  "  if 
you  love  me,  and  have  been  waiting  for  me 
so  long,  you  do  not  wish  to  make  me  ill,  do 
you?" 

"  No,  no !"  said  the  other,  "  we  mustn't 
make  you  ill!"  and  she  leaned  her  head 
lightly  and  contentedly  on  Margaret's  shoul- 
der while  the  latter  tasted  the  food. 


96  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

"  "Why,  Zely !"  said  Mrs.  Herkimer,  when 
she  came,  "  have  you  found  such  a  friend  ?" 

"  I've  been  waiting  for  her,"  said  Zely,  and 
she  chatted  on  mercurially  with  the  cap- 
tain's lady  without  the  least  demonstration 
of  affection  towards  her. 

"I  only  thought  she'd  rattle  on  to  you," 
said  Mrs.  Herkimer  afterwards.  "  I  didn't 
know  she  was  going  to  hug  ye.  She  don't 
do  that,  as  I  know  of.  She  must  'a'  had  a 
queer  kind  of  a  takin'  to  ye." 

"Cranks  and  imbeciles  and  lunatics  al- 
ways have,"  said  Margaret,  biting  her  lip. 

"  Well,  now,"  said  Mrs.  Herkimer,  as  soon 
as  she  could  recover  from  tho  facetious  as- 
pect of  this  idea,  "  I  am  neither  one,  and  I 
was  strongly  attached  to  ye  from  the  first. 
Turn  to  the  left." 

They  drove  over  a  road  unexampled  for 
wild  beauty,  into  the  driveway  of  a  private 
park,  and  confronted  an  imposing  mansion. 

"  Whose  place  is  this  ?"  said  Margaret, 
wondering. 

"  I  am  going  to  call,"  said  Mrs.  Ilerkimer, 
"  on  Judson  Sprague's  sister,  who  is  keep- 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  97 

ing  house  for  him  now.  This  is  Judson's 
home." 

"  I  will  sit  here  and  hold  the  horse,"  said 
Margaret,  rather  shortly. 

"If  you  do,  Judson  will  come  out  and 
visit  with  ye.  I  don't  say  that  he'll  offer  to 
hug  and  kiss  ye  as  Zely  did,  but  he'll  be 
fool  enough  to  want  to.  Ye'll  feel  more 
comfortable  to  come  in." 

Margaret's  eyes  flashed,  but  she  shut  her 
lips  under  the  stress  of  existence  at  seven 
cents  an  hour;  and  at  this  juncture  the 
burly  form  and  rugged,  genial  features  of 
Jeff  appeared. 

"  Let  me  fasten  the  horse." 

"  I  will  show  you  how  to  tie  her,"  said 
Margaret,  as  Mrs.  Herkimer  sailed  off  grand- 
ly towards  the  house. 

"  Oh,  I  know  !  I  know  Eulalie,"  said  Jeff, 
showing  his  big  white  teeth.  "  I'm  rather  a 
special  friend  down  at  the  Ilerkimers,  you 
know  ;"  but  he  gave  the  latter  clause  with 
little  animation. 

"  Alas !  I  know  more  about  you  than  you 
think,  my  young  friend,"  thought  Margaret. 


98 

But  she  liked  Jeff.  They  tied  Eulalie  in 
the  shade  and  went  in  together — Margaret 
suffering  an  effusive  greeting  from  the  elder 
Sprague  at  the  door — to  the  cloistered  splen- 
dors of  one  of  the  great  parlors. 

"  I  hope  you  will  find  a  comfortable  chair, 
Mrs.  Stuart,"  said  the  sister,  with  solemnity, 
as  if  to  emphasize  further  the  luxurious  up- 
holstery displayed  in  the  room. 

Margaret  sat  down  a  little  apart  with 
Jeff.  A  boyish  desire  to  make  her  happy 
irradiated  his  plain  face,  he  reached  out 
and  took  a  photograph  album,  pointing  out 
his  family  relations  to  her,  at  first  with  dry 
statistics  as  to  residence  and  order  of  pro- 
pinquity, but  gradually  working  into  a  vein 
of  great  humor  and  freedom,  with  running 
comments  hard  to  resist. 

The  felicities  of  one  volume  exhausted, 
he  reached  out  for  another. 

"  Jeff,"  said  his  father,  "  have  you  been  to 
the  post  ?" 

"No,  sir."     Jeff's  honest  jaw  drooped. 

"  Will  you  go,  my  son  ?" 

"  Certainly,  sir." 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  99 

The  elder  Sprague  came  over  and  took  the 
chair  thus  perfunctorily  vacated. 

"  After  the  cruel  impression  you  left  upon 
me,  both  the  first  and  last  time  we  ever  met, 
Mrs.  Stuart,  how  has  Mrs.  Herkimer  per- 
suaded you  to  visit  my  humble  home  ?" 

"I  came  merely  as  Mrs.  Herkimer's  com- 
panion." 

"  Ah,  too  bad  !  too  bad !  But  allow  me 
to  say  the  companion  outshines  the  matron, 
to  my  eyes,  as  the  sun  the  moon." 

"  Very  much  obliged,  I'm  sure,"  said  Mar- 
garet, dryly.  "  You  have  exceedingly  charm- 
ing views  here." 

"  You  will  be  surprised  perhaps  that  on 
an  estate  of  this  size  I  keep  only  three 
servants — a  man  for  the  garden,  and  two 
maids  in  the  house.  It  is  my  great  desire, 
if  I  could  find  a  sufficient  incentive — ah,  a 
companion  who  would  encourage  me — to  ex- 
tend the  style  of  my  house -keeping  on  a 
more  sumptuous  and  hospitable  scale." 

Mrs.  Herkimer  and  the  sister,  according 
to  the  custom  of  old  seaport  towns,  had 
turned  their  backs  upon  this  eligible  pair 


100  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

and  become  deeply  engrossed  in  conversa- 
tion. Margaret,  with  anger  in  her  heart, 
thus  basely  deserted  to  mischief,  determined 
to  make  the  most  of  the  precarious  advan- 
tage. 

"  Your  sister  seems  to  be  a  most  amiable 
companion,"  she  said. 

"  Ah,  too  bad  !  too  bad !  Have  the  ties  of 
the  past  been  so  precious  to  you,  Mrs.  Stuart, 
that  you  could  not  even  contemplate  form- 
ing new  ones  for  the  future  ?" 

"  Possibly  —  but  that  would  depend  al- 
together upon  circumstances." 

"Then  I  am  going  to  hope  your  circum- 
stances may  become  more  and  more  re- 
duced!" 

"You  misunderstand  me.  There  is  no 
combination  of  circumstances  that  could 
drive  me  to  take  a  step  I  did  not  wish  to 
take." 

"  Ah,  how  you  would  shine  in  a  generous 
establishment !  Too  bad  !  too  bad  !  But  if 
one  comes  only  as  a  slave  at  your  feet  ?" 

"  I  have  no  desire  for  slaves.  Mrs.  Ilerki- 
mer,  Eulalie  is  such  an  unreliable  beast,  do 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  101 

not  you  think  we  would  better  be  making 
some  investigations  as  to  what  her  present 
misconduct  may  be?'' 

"Patrick  has  put  her  in  the  barn,"  said 
the  sister,  in  her  solemn  voice.  "  We  shall 
lay  it  up  as  a  slight  if  you  do  not  both  stay 
to  luncheon." 

Mrs.  Herkimer,  who  had  evidently  already 
composed  herself  to  this  idea,  did  not  dare 
look  at  Margaret.  They  were  about  to  re- 
sume their  conversation. 

"  I  do  not  like  to  have  you  turn  your 
backs  on  me,"  said  Margaret,  simply. 

The  sister  looked  with  considerable  sur- 
prise at  one  who  attempted  such  innovations 
on  the  established  framework  of  society. 

"  You  must  come  up  to  the  blue-room  and 
take  off  your  things,"  she  said,  when  she  had 
recovered  her  breath. 

Mrs.  Herkimer  kept  close  to  her,  not  wish- 
ing any  confidential  communion  with  Mar- 
garet at  this  time. 

But  when,  having  reached  this  bourn,  they 
looked  out  of  the  windows  and  saw  it  rain- 
ing, the  captain's  lady  resumed  her  mantle 


102  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

of  superior  dignity.  "Well,  it's  fortunate 
we  accepted!"  she  said.  "The  shower  will 
probably  be  over  by  the  time  we  wish  to  go." 

"We  have  ample  guest-rooms,"  said  the 
sister,  with  a  sad,  proud  smile,  as  though 
such  a  self-evident  fact  should  hardly  have 
been  brought  to  the  exigency  of  comment. 

Margaret  got  near  Mrs.  Herkimer.  "  If 
you  stay  overnight,  I  shall  walk  home," 
she  whispered. 

"I  have  no  intention  of  staying  over- 
night !"  said  Mrs.  Herkiraer,  in  her  recovered 
state,  quite  reprovingly. 

The  luncheon  -  table  was  so  loaded  with 
silver  and  cut-glass  the  sense  was  oppres- 
sive. Poor  Jeff  spilled  his  glass  of  claret 
on  the  damask  cloth  and  dropped  his  fork 
twice,  but  even  in  the  midst  of  such  discour- 
agements kept  his  ingenuous  smile  of  good- 
fellowship  directed  at  Margaret  across  the 
table. 

"Ah,  too  bad!  Aren't  you  a  bit  clumsy 
to-day,  my  son  ?" 

"  I'm  always  clumsy,  father." 

The  elder  Sprague  wished  Margaret's  eyes 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  103 

would  rest  on  him  with  the  frank  liking  they 
gave  to  this  wayward  youth. 

Remaining,  to  the  very  moment,  the  tech- 
nical length  of  time  prescribed  by  Yarmouth 
good -manners  after  partaking  of  such  glit- 
tering hospitality,  Mrs.  Herkimer  finally  rose 
and  announced  her  intention  of  going. 

Jeff  was  sent  to  tell  Patrick  to  harness 
Eulalie ;  he  came  springing  back,  his  white 
teeth  gleaming  and  a  good-natured  laugh  in 
his  eyes. 

"  Oh,  Mrs.  Herkimer,  you're  going  home 
with  the  drollest,  prettiest  little  colt !" 

"  Haven't  you  anything  better  to  do,  Jef- 
fre\r,"  said  Mrs.  Herkimer,  with  motherly  for- 
bearance, "  than  to  make  fun  of  poor  Eula- 
lie? There  are  many  older  horses,  though 
I  know  Eulalie  is  no  colt !" 

"  But  she's  —  she's  got  a  colt,  Mrs.  Herki- 
mer—  such  a  droll  little  thing,  running  all 
about !" 

Confirmation  of  this  appalling  statement 

was  now  afforded  by  the  spectacle  of  Patrick 

leading  Eulalie  down  the  driveway,  the  colt 

—  all  legs  —  making  this  condign  occasion 


104  STCART   AND    BAMBOO 

more  lamentable  by  his  unappreciative  frisk- 
iness. 

Mrs.  Herkimer  compressed  her  lips.  Never 
had  Margaret  seen  such  solemnity  on  her 
features  as  when  she  shook  hands  with  her 
entertainers,  uttering  the  usual  common- 
places of  farewell. 

Jeff  was  opening  an  umbrella  to  see  Mar- 
garet down  the  path,  but  his  father  antici- 
pated him,  interposing  his  own  silk  canopy 
between  her  and  the  clouds.  So  Jeff  went 
ahead,  sheltering  Mrs.  Herkimer. 

Margaret,  with  her  light  step  and  head 
well  carried,  chatted  cheerfully  of  the  pros- 
pect of  clearing  weather,  of  the  extraordi- 
nary beauty  of  the  landscape.  She  dared 
not  look  ahead  at  the  supernal  dignity  of 
Mrs.  Herkimer' s  carriage,  nor  at  other  feat- 
ures of  the  near  prospect. 

Accustomed  to  having  women  duck  their 
heads  nervously  under  the  umbrella  and 
hold  to  its  progress,  the  elder  Sprague  was 
now  compelled  rather  to  dance  a  watchful 
attendance  upon  his  companion,  so  erect 
and  indifferently  she  sailed  on. 


STUAKT   AND   BAMBOO  105 

"  This  is  the  woman  for  my  enlarged  estab- 
lishment !"  thought  he. 

"I  have  a  feeling,"  he  murmured,  "that 
you  will  not  always  be  so  inconsiderate  of  a 
sincere — adorer." 

In  the  agitation  of  the  moment  he  knocked 
her  hat  with  a  corner  of  the  umbrella,  and 
saw  with  dismay  the  rain -drops  falling  on 
her  sweet  face. 

She  smiled,  untroubled  and  unvexed. 
"  Treasure  that  feeling,"  she  drawled,  coolly, 
as  if  with  a  subtle  suggestion  there  might 
be  less  warrant  for  it  in  the  future. 

The  two  women  drove  on  silently  until,  at 
a  discreet  distance  from  the  house,  the  colt 
forsook  its  mother  for  some  wayside  investi- 
gations and  Eulalie  stopped  short  with  a 
watchful  sideways  cast  of  body ;  then  Mar- 
garet handed  the  lines  to  Mrs.  Herkimer 
and  shrieked  with  laughter.  The  captain's 
lady  waited  quietly. 

"  When  you  get  through,"  said  she,  "  I'll 
take  my  turn." 

"  This  must  be  done  now,"  she  said,  "  and 
forever  afterwards  repressed.  My  inmost 


106  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

feelings  are  far  otherwise  from  mirthful.  I 
was  not  informed.  The  captain  kne\v  what 
was  likely  to  happen.  I — I  am  almost  in- 
clined," she  said,  in  a  deep  voice,  "  to  visit 
him  with  corporeal  punishment !" 

"  I  will  assist  you  with  all  my  heart,"  said 
Margaret. 

The  captain  himself,  when  he  saw  them 
approaching — the  colt  having  by  this  time 
got  down  to  a  steady  stalking  gait,  the 
weather  now  quite  clear  and  a  fresh  wind 
blowing  —  looked  at  first  with  a  searching 
intentness,  then,  as  the  truth  burst  upon  him, 
turned  his  head  in  a  sort  of  sickly  despair, 
and  as  they  drew  nearer  even  affected  to 
whistle. 

"  "Well,"  said  Mrs.  Herkimer,  "  here  we 
are!" 

The  tone  implied  bodily  attack,  and  Mar- 
garet only  waited  the  initiative  from  her 
protectress. 

"  The  tide  serves  and  the  moon's  full  1" 
said  the  captain,  turning  his  guilty  face  tow- 
ards them.  "  We  must  have  a  sail  this  even- 
in-!" 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  107 

It  was  the  one  point  on  which  he  could 
ever  hope  to  begin  to  be  restored  to  the 
favor  of  his  lady.  The  serving  of  the  tide 
and  a  sail  were  ever  as  manna  to  her  soul, 
but  she  did  not  yield  so  readily — not  she. 

"What  do  you  think  of  yourself,  Captain 
Herkimer?" 

"  I  hadn't  no  idea  it  was  goin'  to  happen 
so  soon — on  my  word,  I  hadn't,  Nell!"  he 
protested,  but  his  face  broke  into  a  fateful 
grin  at  the  antics  of  his  new  and  untoward 
possession. 

"  Smile — smile  if  you  can,  Captain  Herki- 
mer !  I  shall  never  hold  my  head  up  again !" 
Having  said  this,  and  holding  her  head  very 
high  indeed,  Mrs.  Herkimer  swept  into  the 
house.  "  You  must  stay  to-night,  Mrs.  Stu- 
art. I  can  never  live  through  the  night 
without  the  consciousness  that  you  are  un- 
der my  roof." 

"  Yes,  I  will  stay."  It  came  to  Margaret 
that  she  might  chance  upon  a  little  private 
conversation  with  Helen,  and  learn,  in  a  casual 
way,  the  stringency  of  her  affection  for  Jeff, 
in  whom,  for  Mildred's  sake,  as  well  as  his 


108  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

own  boyish  fate,  she  had  become  sincerely 
interested.  "But,"  she  added,  referring  to 
the  captain,  "shall  you  forgive  him  so  soon? 
It  has  grown  a  perfect  evening,  and,  as  you 
say,  the  tide  serves ;  but  shall  you  go  sailing 
this  evening  ?" 

"The  pangs  of  remorse,"  replied  Mrs. 
Herkimer,  "are  no  less  on  the  ocean  than 
on  the  land !"  and  with  an  evident  intention 
that,  though  bounding  joyfully  on  the  ca- 
prices of  the  deep,  the  captain  should  not 
forget  the  torments  of  that  never-dying 
worm,  she  meanwhile  laid  aside  her  bonnet. 


CHAPTER  VII 

HELEN  looked  on  with  grave  disapproval 
while  the  captain  pulled  up  an  eel-trap  or 
two  and  emptied  the  contents  into  a  box. 

"What  would  people  think  of  a  man  of 
your  professions  and  money,"  said  his  lady, 
"  out  here  by  moonlight,  stealin'  snakes  ?" 

"  Pshaw !  I've  only  took  half  o'  what 
there  was  in  two  traps,  and  they'll  fill  up 
again  before  morning.  '  Snakes  !'  They're 
fine  eatin'.  They're  worth  a  dollar  apiece 
over  in  the  States  !" 

"  Poor  souls  !  Have  you  got  to  take  pat- 
tern after  all  the  heathen  that  you  know  of, 
Captain  Herkimer?" 

To  Margaret,  this  sail  by  moonlight  along 
an  untamed  coast  was  an  ecstasy.  The  in- 
timation of  theft,  the  wriggling  of  the  eels 
in  the  box,  only  made  more  weird  such  law- 
less riding  of  the  waves ;  her  eyes  sparkled 


110  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

with  laughing  encouragement  at  the  chief 
marauder,  the  captain,  while  Helen,  near  to 
whom  she  sat,  steered  sadly,  watching  the 
self-abandoned  sympathy  with  the  elements 
on  the  older  woman's  face. 

"  What  should  you  do  if  something  should 
happen  to  the  boat,  Mrs.  Stuart  —  if  there 
should  be  danger?"  she  said,  wistfully. 

"  I  feel  as  though  I  should  hardly  care," 
laughed  Margaret.  "  If  we  Avere  riding  so 
fast,  and  a  wind  like  this,  I  know  I  should 
not  drown,  I  should  go  somewhere  nice !" 

"  What  church  do  you  belong  to  ?" 

"  Oh,  the  Presbyterian  ;  but  at  heart,  I 
fear,  always  a  wretched  little  Catholic,  of 
the  old  days,  when  they  could  not  read 
and  a  few  images  were  enough!"  Mar- 
garet spoke,  with  laughing  half  earnestness, 
in  a  low  voice,  but  Helen  shuddered.  "  My 
dear  little  girl,"  the  Stuart  went  on,  "  every 
thought  is  so  hackneyed,  so  attenuated, 
in  these  days,  the  brain  has  outgrown  the 
limbs  that  carry  it  and  is  a  deformity. 
There  is  this  theory  and  that  theory,  and 
lots  of  pale  people  in  spectacles  running  to 


STUAKT    AND    BAMBOO  111 

hear  them  expounded.  I  envy  the  brown 
and  red  fish-wife,  with  a  shawl  over  her  head 
and  no  alphabet,  who  gets  down  by  a  way- 
side cross  and  tells  her  beads.  We  theorize, 
she  sees  •  we  hardly  hope,  she  knows." 

The  girl  listened,  fascinated,  but  too  chary 
even  to  attempt  comprehension. 

At  this  point  something  slimy  and  ser- 
pentine began  to  wind  itself  round  Marga- 
ret's ankle.  She  gave  a  shriek  as  impetuous 
and  clearly  defined  as  the  edge  of  a  knife, 
and  sprang,  still  shrieking,  into  Helen's 
arms. 

The  captain  rushed  over  and  captured  a 
large  eel  which  had  escaped  consignment  to 
the  box  by  oversight ;  he  also  took  the  helm 
while  Helen  held  Margaret. 

"  It  was  only  an  eel,  Mrs.  Stuart ;  dear 
Mrs.  Stuart,  father  has  put  it  in  the  box ;  it 
was  only  an  eel."  At  which  Margaret  only 
emitted  another  piercing  scream. 

The  captain  left  the  helm  momentarily, 
and,  lifting  the  box,  precipitated  its  entire 
contents  into  the  water.  The  sound  of  the 
struggling  and  writhing  ceased. 


112  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

"They're  all  back  in  the  water,  Mrs. 
Stuart.  Father  has  emptied  them  all  into 
the  water." 

Margaret  first  grew  cold,  then  trembled, 
then  sobbed,  then  laughed  again.  The  grave 
Helen  got  the  impression  that  she  was  a 
spirit  possibly  much  subject  to  "  mad  fits " 
in  her  childhood,  and  that  her  usual  com- 
mendable self-control  was  perhaps  primarily 
a  matter  of  culture  rather  than  of  native 
predilection. 

"  I  never  had  a  snake  near  me  before," 
said  the  Stuart,  relapsing  into  Mrs.  Ilerki- 
mer's  own  terms.  "In  Fox's  Book  of  J/<//-- 
tyrs,  when  my  old  nurse  used  to  read  me 
about  putting  people  into  bags  of  them,  I 
always  had  to  scream.  It  isn't  a  matter  of 
courage;  I'd  rather  die.  I've  always  known 
I  never  could  bear  that  /"  She  glanced  with 
dilated  eyes  about  the  boat. 

"  They're  every  one  of  'em  overboard,"  said 
Mrs.  Herkimer  in  a  soothing  voice.  "  You 
see  now,"  she  said,  with  the  utmost  solem- 
nity to  the  captain,  "what's  come  o'  your 
didos  with  them  eels."  The  poor  captain 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  113 

steered  on,  deeply  oppressed  by  this  culmi- 
nating disaster  of  the  day. 

"  Oh,  do  get  some  more,  captain,  if  you 
wish  !"  cried  Margaret.  "  I  could  look  out 
another  time ;  it  was  being  taken  so  by  sur- 
prise. Still,  if  you  don't  mind  going  with- 
out—" 

"  There's  not  going  to  be  any  more  eel 
tantrums  in  this  boat!"  said  Mrs.  Herkimer, 
decidedly. 

"Any body 'd  think  I  did  it  a-purpose!" 
exclaimed  the  captain.  "  I  wouldn't  'a'  had 
it  happen  for  anything." 

"  When  we  set  out  by  breaking  the  com- 
mandments—" began  his  lady. 

"Breaking  your  granny!"  cried  the  cap- 
tain, desperate  in  his  woe,  and  would  hear 
no  more. 

"We  will  have  devotions  to-night,"  said 
Mrs.  Herkimer,  with  meaning,  when  they 
reached  home. 

Helen  set  a  lamp  on  the  piano. 

"  Will  you  read,  or  shall  I,  Captain  Herki- 
mer? Helen  will  then  sing." 

The  captain,  who  was  too  manly  to  con- 


114  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

tinue  pettish,  took  the  Bible  reverently  and 
turned  to  the  fluid  sentences  of  a  reassuring 
psalm. 

"  We  must  remember,"  said  Mrs.  Herkimer 
at  the  close,  "  that  those  promises  are  for 
such  as  keep  the  narrow  way.  "Will  you 
sing,  Helen, '  Yesterday  I  wandered '  2" 

"'Yesterday  I  wandered  in  the  paths  of  sin.'" 

Helen's  sweet  spirit-burdened  voice  filled  the 
room  with  an  uneasy  awe. 

The  Stuart,  nervous^as  only  a  high-strung 
animal  can  be  at  some  slimy  incident,  still 
casting  an  occasional  involuntary  glance  along 
the  floor,  met  the  captain's  generally  cool 
and  contemptuous  bearing  with  a  wide,  star- 
tled smile  of  sympathy  in  her  eyes. 

"  P'sh  !"  said  the  hero  of  many  seas  at  the 
close  of  these  exercises.  "  Anybody  'd  think 
I  was  lost  just  because  I  took  a  dozen  of  Ed 
Harris's  eels,  when  he's  told  me  a  thousand 
times  to  help  myself." 

"It's  the  spirit  and  not  the  letter,"  said 
Mrs.  Herkimer,  finally. 

""What  we  need  is  a  good  night's  rest," 


STUAKT   AND    BAMBOO  115 

said  the  sea- veteran,  cheerfully.  "  We  ain't 
got  half  a  dozen  brains  between  us  as  it  is." 

"A  good  conscience  is  better  than  a 
mountain  of  the  brilliantest  brains,"  said  his 
lady. 

"It  may  be  better,"  replied  the  captain, 
"  but  conscience  without  brains  makes  a  dev- 
ilish poor  show." 

His  disappearance  with  these  words  was 
timely  and  instantaneous. 

Helen  accompanied  Margaret  to  her  room. 

"  You  must  not  be  nervous  to-night,"  said 
the  girl,  setting  down  the  lamp.  "  After  all, 
it  was  nothing,  you  know." 

"  Oh,  I  shall  not  be  nervous !"  said  Marga- 
ret, quite  with  her  usual  manner.  "  But  what 
a  charming  fire !  I  love  a  climate  where  one 
can  always  enjoy  a  fire  at  night.  Sit  down 
a  moment,  dear !" 

Helen  sat  clown  not  far  from  the  enigma, 
and  watched  her  composed  face  and  retro- 
spective eyes  kindling  in  the  firelight. 

Margaret  did  not  hurry.  "  Should  you 
have  acted  as  I  did  about  that  eel?"  she 
asked,  at  last,  tranquilly. 


116  8TUAKT   AND   BAMBOO 

Helen,  too,  took  time  for  thought.  "  No," 
she  said,  very  gravely. 

"But  why  not?  Are  you  used  to  being 
embraced  by — creeping  things?" 

"  No,  I  am  not  used  to  them." 

"  Well,  then,  Helen,  why  not  ?" 

"  Because  I  try  to  be  always  prepared  for 
hard  things — any  hard  thing." 

"  Oh,  my  child,"  said  Margaret,  impetu- 
ously, "you  ought  not  to  feel  that  way — so 
good  and  so  young,  and  with  such  a  happy 
future  before  you !"  But  her  heart  smote 
her  at  that  last  clause.  Perhaps  Helen  was 
wise,  after  all. 

"I  do  not  know  that  my  future  will  be 
happy." 

"  But  you  are  engaged  " — Margaret  spoke 
in  a  tentatively  delicate  way — "to  such  a 
nice  young  man.  I  met  him  to-day.  I  think 
he  is  a  dear  boy." 

"  He  is  dear  enough,"  said  the  girl,  shyly, 
and  her  lips  trembled. 

"  This  poor  child  is  like  the  sea  she  was 
born  by,"  thought  Margaret,  "  deep  and  sad. 
Mildred  should  give  him  up — yes,  Mildred 


STUABT   AND    BAMBOO  117 

should  give  him  up.  But  he  loves  Mil- 
dred !" 

The  girl,  watching  her  enigma's  face,  saw 
it  perplexed  and  wearily  saddening  in  the 
firelight,  and,  without  knowing  the  cause, 
her  heart  was  moved  to  a  sudden  confidence. 

"  Yes,  he  is  dear  enough,  Mrs.  Stuart ;  so 
dear  that  I  could  myself  endure  to  suffer 
or  be  deprived  of  anything  if  it  was  for  his 
happiness  and  good.  I  know  that." 

In  her  self-contained  life  this  impulse  to 
confession  shook  her  almost  as  if  it  had  been 
a  crime. 

"  Let  us  hope  for  happy  things  —  happy 
things,"  said  Margaret,  rising  in  her  own 
bright  way.  She  bent  down  and  kissed  the 
girl ;  her  very  presence  gave  a  sense  of  per- 
sonal endearment. 

Helen's  thoughts  turned  ever  rapidly  from 
her  own  case  to  care  for  others.  "  Now  you 
must  not  get  nervous  in  a  strange  room 
in  the  night,"  she  repeated.  "Remember, 
it  was  nothing."  She  paused  a  moment, 
standing.  "  And  remember,"  she  said,  as  if 
still  under  a  spell  of  confession,  "if  ever 


118  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

you  needed  me  as  a  friend,  if  ever  there 
was  any  hard  thing,  I  would  do  it  for  you." 

Margaret  looked  into  her  dark  eyes.  Many 
had  said  that  to  her  in  the  sanguine  day  of 
prosperity  who  had  tacitly  fallen  off  in  ad- 
versity. 

"  I  believe  you,  dear,"  she  said. 

"  I  did  not  take  to  her  at  first,"  said  Mar- 
garet, alone,  musing  over  the  fire,  "  because 
I  had  thought  she  had  no  mitigating  sense 
of  humor  whatever.  Possibly  she  has  some- 
thing less  easily  to  be  spared.  Still — it  is 
lugubrious."  She  shrugged  her  shoulders, 
her  glance  wandering,  startled,  about  the 
floor  again.  She  heard  a  soft  "  tap !  tap !" 
at  the  door ;  she  opened  it,  and  there  stood 
Stack ;  he  entered  and  immediately  stretched 
himself  on  the  rug  thereby. 

"  Helen  sent  you  !"  cried  Margaret,  joy- 
fully. 

"  Anyway,  I  came,"  said  Stack,  closing  his 
august  eyes  and  already  pretending  to  snore. 

"  But  you  must  eat  this  cake  I  saved  for 
you,  you  dear  fellow!"  said  Margaret,  pro- 
ducing the  prize  from  her  pocket. 


STUART    AND    BAMBOO  119 

He  munched  it,  adoring  her. 

"  Well,  good  -  night  then !"  The  lace  of 
her  sleeve  fell  over  his  shaggy  neck  in  a  ca- 
ress. 

His  steady  breathing  sent  her  off  to  sleep, 
reassured  her  in  those  waking  moments 
which  might  otherwise  have  been  afflicted 
with  tremors.  For  uncanny  noises  disturbed 
that  night.  The  new  puppy  broke  his  chain, 
and  weirdly,  wailingly,  bayed  the  moon  hour 
after  hour  under  her  window.  Eulalie,  more 
than  usually  indifferent  to  propriety  under 
the  prestige  of  motherhood,  led  or  followed 
her  colt  in  ghoulish  wanderings  and  antics 
about  the  lawn  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
the  house,  kicking  tragically  at  the  garden 
gate,  calling  shrilly,  and  shaking  the  gaunt 
apple-trees,  subsiding  into  a  deceptive  si- 
lence only  to  startle  the  night  with  some 
new  and  hideous  vagary  of  conduct.  It 
seemed  at  some  point  in  these  proceedings 
that  Margaret  heard  the  captain's  voice  in 
the  big  hall  below,  directed  widely,  like  the 
general  reveille  of  a  trumpet : 

"  Why  the  -    -  don't  some  o'  ye  get  up  ? 


120  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

It's  half  after  seven !  The  girl's  had  the  cof- 
fee made  an  hour !" 

Mrs.  Herkimer,  who  had  left  her  hall  door 
open  for  circulation  of  air,  rose  and  pointed- 
ly shut  it  to. 

Margaret,  laughing  to  herself,  sprang  out 
of  bed  and  released  Stack,  who  stood  pa- 
tiently waiting  at  the  door  with  averted 
head,  and  who  never  once  looked  at  her  in 
her  night-robe. 

She  was  in  a  sunny  humor  at  breakfast, 
and  even  Helen  seemed  to  reflect  hope  from 
her. 

"  How  many  seconds  o'  sleep  did  you  get 
last  night,  Mrs.  Stuart  ?"  said  Mrs.  Herkimer, 
who  had  herself  been  sleepless  and  felt  the 
necessity  for  severity. 

"  Oh,  I  slept  ever  so  much  !  I  had  Stack 
at  the  door,"  and  she  unreservedly  cut  out 
the  tenderloin  from  her  steak  and  laid  it  one 
side  for  a  purpose. 

"  There  now,  don't,  Mrs.  Stuart,"  said  the 
captain,  beaming  beatifically,  "  I'll  save  him 
some  from  the  dish." 

"No,"  said  the  Stuart,  with  childish  mo- 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  121 

nopoly  of  privilege, "  1  thought  of  it  first. 
It's  my  trick !" 

"  Yarmouth  is  the  only  place,"  persisted 
Mrs.  Herkimer,  but  without  so  much  asper- 
ity as  she  had  shown  at  first — "  the  only  place 
I  ever  was  in  where  puppies  and  horses  were 
allowed  to  beset  creation  all  night  long  with 
their  '  go  as  you  please ' !" 

"Why,  Yarmouth's  the  only  place  you 
ever  lived  in,  anyway,  Nell,"  said  her  hus- 
band. 

"  I've  dwelt  weeks  at  foreign  ports,"  said 
the  lady,  majestically,  ignoring  the  interrup- 
tion. 

""Well,  yes;  but  Yarmouth's  the  only 
place  you  ever  lived  in  steady." 

"  Steady  !  Do  you  call  it  living  steady  to 
be  hallooed  at  all  night  with  the  didos  of 
wild  beasts,  and  awakened  by  profanity  in 
the  morning?" 

Margaret  burst  fearlessly  into  laughter; 
the  captain  followed  with  a  whole  heart. 
Helen  bit  her  lip  and  choked.  Mrs.  Herki- 
mer herself  succumbed,  finally  drying  the 
mirthful  tears  from  her  eves. 


122  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

"  I  wish  you'd  marry  into  the  family,"  she 
said,  half  facetiously,  half  earnestly,  to  the 
Stuart,  bidding  her  good-bye  at  the  door — 
for  Margaret  felt  the  necessity  of  looking  to 
her  affairs  at  the  tenements  — "  meanin',  of 
course,  Judson." 

"We  will  see,"  said  Margaret,  who,  with 
health  and  hope  and  the  ringing  air  of  the 
morning,  felt  ready  to  jest  with  fate. 

And  lo !  his  carriage  overtook  her  as  she 
walked  down  towards  the  town. 

"  Ah,  how  fortunate,  Mrs.  Stuart !  I  am 
going  your  way,  and  my  sister  is  with  me, 
see !  Now  I  beg  of  you,  do  me  the  honor." 

He  had  alighted  and  was  addressing  her 
in  a  low,  unctuous  voice. 

"  I  enjoy  and  need  the  walk.  I  really  pre- 
fer to  walk ;  thank  you  very  much  !" 

"Ah,  too  bad!  too  bad!  Still  cruel? 
Well—  The  sister  looked  at  her  with  won- 
dering disapproval — as  a  vagrant  from  priv- 
ilege. He  regained  his  seat,  and  the  rich 
equipage  rolled  out  of  sight. 

Margaret  walked  on,  conscious  as  she 
neared  the  town  of  the  mean  little  rooms 


STUAKT   AND    BAMBOO  123 

awaiting  her,  which  her  dainty  garments 
swept  incongruously,  of  an  impoverished 
larder,  of  a  cooking-stove  which  either  bel- 
lowed with  flame  up  the  chimney  or  threw 
out  smoke  at  her,  of  the  merciless,  insistent 
wash-tubs  and  the  halting  clothes-line,  and 
she  shivered  and  sighed. 

"  What  is  the  use,  after  all,  when  I  might 
— ugh  !  But  don't  ask  me  too  many  times  " 
— she  laughed  softly  and  insolently  after  the 
retreating  carriage — "  or  perhaps,  after  all,  I 
shall  get  in  and  ride  with  you  1" 


CHAPTER  VIII 

"  PLONTOGONET'S  gone  on  progriss,  Mrs. 
Stuart,  ma'am." 

"  On  progress !" 

"  Yes,  drat  take  him !  From  the  book  o' 
Kings  and  Quanes  he's  got  it.  And  the 
school-teacher's  been  sindin'  down  here  to 
tell  me  she's  never  seen  the  light  o'  him  this 
day,  nor  tin  others  he's  beguiled  off  wid 
him  for  a  ratinue.  Begorry,  I'd  rat  him  if 
I  had  him  betune  my  two  honds !" 

Mrs.  O'Ragan  was  in  evil  spleen.  "  Path- 
rick  !"  she  said,  with  a  groan,  to  a  small  heir 
who  was  not  off  on  progress, "  run  over  to 
Dr.  McGuire  and  tell  him  I'm  did  wid  the 
pain  and  nade  a  bit  o'  midicine.  Run  now  ! 

"  I  had  a  benanny  thirst  on  me  this  morn- 
in',"  she  explained  to  Margaret,  "and  I 
squinched  it  wid  a  half-dizzen  benannys  aff 
a  cart,  and  they  lift  me  groanin'." 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  125 

The  small  boy  returned.  "  The  doctor 
says,  sind  to  the  sody-water  man  and  git  a 
anterdote." 

"  How  much  be  they  ?  Here,  take  a  quar- 
ther,  and  if  they're  expinsive  git  a  small 
one,  and  hurry  wid  ye !" 

The  boy  returned  breathless.  "  The  sody 
man  says,  what  do  ye  want  a  anterdote  for  ?" 

Mrs.  O'Ragan  gasped  with  indignation. 
"  Go  offer  him  yer  money,  fair,"  said  she, 
at  length,  with  portentous  calm,  "  and  if  he 
don't  give  ye  one,  return  yerself  straight 
and  tell  me." 

The  boy  crept  back  with  a  haggard  air. 
"  He  says — he  says,  what  do  ye  want  a  an- 
terdote for?" 

Mrs.  O'Kagan  rose,  impressively  securing 
her  waist -cable;  outside  she  put  a  shawl  of 
many  colors,  and  a  bonnet  —  evidently  the 
cast-off  freak  of  some  fashionable  dame.  It 
was  extremely  small,  and  Mrs.  O'Eagan's 
head  was  masterful  in  proportions ;  perched, 
therefore,  on  the  extreme  backward  summit 
of  her  pug  of  hair,  it  gave  her  an  aspect  so 
martial  that  even  the  heart  of  a  friend  shook 


126  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

at  her.  Into  the  bill  of  a  moribund  hum- 
ming-bird which  topped  the  last  aspiring 
point  of  this  head-piece,  dangling,  however, 
in  a  tottering  position  from  recent  hard 
wear,  Plantagenet,  before  he  went  on  prog- 
ress, had  stuffed  an  entire  peanut.  But  Mrs. 
O'Ragan  was  too  excited  to  observe  this 
lesser  indignity. 

As  she  marched  away,  awful  with  over- 
perpendicularity  of  carriage,  this  sorrowful 
bird,  at  the  very  summit  of  her,  was  the  only 
thing  about  her  that  fluttered,  and  seemed 
trying  to  disgorge  the  plebeian  fruit  which 
Plantagenet  had  all  too  firmly  implanted  in 
its  bill. 

"  I'll  have  an  antherdote,"  said  she,  enter- 
ing the  drug  store  with  treacherous  calm 
and  displaying  a  large  purse  with  a  gilt 
clasp. 

"What  do  you  wish  an  antidote  for, 
madam  ?" 

"You  lay  that  antherdote  down  on  the 
counther  and  give  me  the  price  of  it,  you 
little  razor -toed,  hair-'zled,  rubous  -  ringed 
jude  you,  or  I'll  be  over  behint  there  and 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  127 

let  you  know  what  I  want  anything  for !  I 
ain't  did  yit !" 

The  clerk  looked  at  Mrs.  O'llagan,  and 
hastening  to  his  stores,  evolved  and  tied  up 
with  rapid  fingers  a  small  parcel  which  he 
handed  her  with  unaffected  humility. 

"Perhaps  I  could  suit  you  better  if  I 
knew  what  you  wished  it  for,  madam,  but 
this  is  innocuous — 

"  Quit  now !  Quit  your  langvvidge  to  me !" 
said  Mrs.  O'Eagan.  "  No  one  ever  insoolt- 
ed  me  twicet,  ye  little  flea-bite  ye!  How 
much  is  it?" 

"  A  nickel,  ma'arn." 

"What  do  ye  take  me  fur?  Give  me  a 
tin-cint  one,  and  make  haste  wid  ye !" 

The  clerk  instantly  made  substitution  of 
the  increased  order.  And  with  the  con- 
temptuous snort  of  an  easy  conqueror,  Mrs. 
O'Ragan,  capped  by  that  ennauseated  and 
tottering  humming-bird,  made  her  depart- 
ure. 

"  Say,  mammy,"  said  little  Pat,  restored 
in  spirit  by  her  successful  return  with  a  par- 
cel, "  your  bird's  eatin'  a  peanut,  he  is !" 


128  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

"What  bird,  thin?  What's  the  child 
mean  in'  ?" 

"  The  bird  in  your  bunnit's  eatin'  a  pea- 
nut, te-he !" 

Mrs.O'Ragan  divested  herself  of  that  proud 
ornament  and  found  that  it  was  even  so. 

"  Did  you  know  it  was  fixed  on  me  that 
shape,  thin,  whin  I  wint  down  to  the  sody 
man's  ?"  she  said,  eying  her  offspring. 

"  No,  ma'am,"  said  Pat,  with  instant  com- 
mendable resource  to  negation ;  "  I  seen  it  on 
ye  jest  as  ye  was  turndin'  the  cornder  home." 

"  Sure  how  could  ye  see  it  on  me  behind 
when  I  was  comin'  forninst  ye  ?" 

"  Why,  mammy,  I  seed  ye  sideways  when 
ye  turndid  the  cornder !  I  guess  Pleg  done 
it — te-he ! — 'cause  he  stoled  a  peanut  off  Jim- 
my las'  night." 

"  I  don't  guess  at  all,  I  know  viry  will 
who  done  it,  and  when  Plontogonet  Stu- 
art gets  home  from  this  progress,  whativer 
that  he's  on  now,  he'll  go  on  another  right 
straight !  He'll  go  on  a  progress  up  and 
down  this  room  wid  a  sthick  after  him ! 
That's  the  nixt  progress  he'll  go  on  !" 


STUAKT   AND    BAMBOO  129 

Margaret  kept  an  eye  out  at  her  window 
for  the  hero's  return.  She  had  this  un- 
accountable feeling  towards  Plantagenet 
of  late,  that  she  would  even  rather  suffer 
stripes  on  her  own  body  than  have  him  bear 
them. 

Advanced  exploiting  parties  from  the  reti- 
nue slunk  in  one  by  one  at  dusk — two  of 
Agnes's  boys,  but  she  only  took  them  and 
washed  and  fed  and  wept  over  them  for  the 
sorrow  they  had  given  her,  which  they 
dreaded  far  more  than  the  beating  their 
comrades  looked  forward  to  as  the  natural 
corollary  of  aspiring  acts. 

At  last  Margaret  saw  a  sturdy  form 
mounting  the  cliffs,  its  garments  deplorable, 
even  "H.M.S.  Mohawk"  was  rent  with  the 
dark  significance  of  some  stirring  adventure. 
She  caught  up  a  sandwich  she  had  ready 
prepared  and  threw  a  shawl  over  her  head 
after  the  manner  of  the  tenements. 

Plantagenet  expected  her,  his  joyful,  hun- 
gry eyes  glowing  larger  than  ever  out  of  a 
battle-worn  face. 

"  The  '  Pluck  and   Liver  Kore '   's  done 


130  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

glorious  to  day!"  said  he,  devouring   the 
bread  and  meat  in  a  few  gulps. 

"  I  would  have  brought  you  more,  dear," 
said  Margaret,  sitting  on  a  rock  at  his  side, 
"  but  it  happened  to  be  " — she  blushed— 
"  all  the  meat  I  had  in  the  house." 

"  I  couldn't  eat  no  more,"  said  the  hero, 
loyally,  whose  healthy  stomach  had  only 
been  incited  to  greater  desire  by  the  sop 
offered  it. 

"  I've  just  made  some  cake  and  put  it  on 
the  iron  sink  to  cool  a  bit ;  it  will  be  ready 
by  the  time  we  get  down  to  the  house.  I've 
made  four  loaves !" 

The  woman's  pride  was  as  pathetic  as  the 
boy's,  and  their  elated,  woe-begone  counte- 
nances were  as  if  they  had  been  mother  and 
child. 

'•Oh,  you're  a  giddy  house -keeper,  you 
be  !"  said  the  commander  of  the  "  Pluck  and 
Liver  Corps,"  with  tender  gallantry.  "  Say  ! 
Sen'  Marie  Stuart  and  Botherwell  set  on  a 
rock  jest  the  same  way  us  is  settin',  that 
time  they  runned  away  together." 

Margaret  laughed  merrily  to  the  echoes. 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  131 

A  lean  kitten  came  galloping  up  to  them, 
trailing  the  broad  strings  of  a  ribbon  that 
occasionally  tripped  her  and  rolled  her  to 
earth. 

"  You  poor,  sad  thing !"  said  Margaret,  re- 
tying  the  silk  so  jauntily  around  its  neck 
that  the  starved  form  of  the  cat  was  hardly 
discoverable  in  the  midst  of  her  exterior 
splendors.  "  Don't  you  think  she's  gaining 
a  little,  Plantagenet  ?  She  was  almost  dead 
when  I  took  her.  She  would  come,  she 
would  stay,  she  would  get  in  somehow." 

"  She's  plumpin'  up,  you  can  tell  by  her 
liveliness." 

"  Oh,  she's  dreadfully  lively !  She  has 
broken  my  clock  already,  and  some  other 
things.  I  used  to  say  I  never  would  be  an 
old  woman  living  with  a  cat — but  you  see  !" 

Plantagenet  looked  wistfully  at  her.  "With 
the  soft,  white  shawl  half  escaped  from  her 
head,  and  the  wind  making  havoc  in  her 
beautiful  hair,  she  looked  so  young  that  the 
commander-in-chief  laughed  merrily. 

"  Oh,  Plantagenet !" 

"  Did  you  wash  to-day  ?" 


132  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

"  Yes,  I  washed — and  made  cake." 

"You  won't  feel  so  old  to-raorrer,  when 
you  git  rested." 

"  I  don't  know.  I  wish  you  would  not  go 
on  progress  any  more !" 

"  But  I  got  to,"  said  he,  very  sadly  and 
gravely,  winding  a  black  rag  with  heroic 
firmness  around  an  injured  toe ;  "  they  all 
did,  ye  know." 

"  But  I  wish  you  would  hold  Dumbarton 
Castle  for  a  while.  I  am  so  afraid  some- 
thing will  happen  while  you're  gone." 

"  Well,"  said  Plantagenet,  glowing  almost 
to  bursting,  "  I  will !  I'll  stay  and  hold  it 
a  while." 

Margaret's  shawl  drooped  over  him  as 
they  came  towards  the  house.  She  had  a 
key  of  the  back  door,  and  they  went  up  the 
stairs  together,  the  kitten  following  trip- 
pingly in  her  again  loosened  ribbon.  Mar- 
garet thrust  her  into  her  own  kitchen 
and  locked  the  door  on  her,  and  they 
went  on. 

"  We'll  run  to  Sanctuary,  won't  we  ?"  said 
she. 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  133 

"  Yes,"  said  Plantagenet,  again  swelling  ; 
"  I  guess  we  will !" 

Up  two  flights  more  they  climbed  and 
knocked  at  a  door  in  the  attic. 

"  Coom  ye  in !     Coom  ye  in  ! 

"  What  have  they  been  doin'  to  ye  two  ?" 
said  Granny  Stuart,  pluming  in  her  chair 
like  a  hen  over  hawk -endangered  chickens. 
Granny  never  asked  of  a  refugee,  "  What 
have  you  been  doing  ?"  Never.  But  always, 
"  What  have  they  been  doing  to  you  ?" 

"Nothing,"  said  Margaret,  sitting  down 
on  a  stool,  to  which  she  seemed  very  much 
accustomed  ;  "  we  just  wanted  to  see  you." 

"  Has  old  Jusson  Sprague  been  chasin' 
ye  to  marry  him,  because  ye're  poor  and 
he  owns  the  tiniments  and  many  more  ?" 

"  No,"  said  Margaret,  obediently,  from 
her  stool  on  one  side  of  Granny. 

"  Has  O'Ragan  Stuart  been  beatin'  ye  ?" 

"  No,  ma'am,"  replied  Plantagenet  from 
the  stool  on  the  other  side. 

"Then  why  are  ye  all  wind-blown,  my 
darlin'?"  said  Granny,  patting  Margaret  with 
one  hand ;  "  and  why  are  ye  lookin'  more  like 


134  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

a  scarecrow  nor  iver,  poor  darlin'  ?"  patting 
the  commander-in-chief  with  the  other. 

"  Why,  I  just  been  on  a  little  progress  to- 
day, Granny,  and  she  come  to  meet  me." 

"  God  bless  her  !  God  bless  her !"  Gran- 
ny's soft  old  hand  went  "  pat,  pat "  on  Mar- 
garet's head.  u  Ye  must  have  a  bit  o'  cordial, 
the  two  o*  ye." 

She  rose,  leaning  on  them  both,  for  no 
one  could  get  the  cordial  but  she,  and  hob- 
bled to  her  cupboard.  Into  two  handleless 
earthen  cups  she  poured  an  equal  measure 
compounded  with  a  teaspoon,  and  Margaret 
sipped  from  her  stool  and  Plantagenet  sip- 
ped from  his  stool.  It  smacked  of  no  qual- 
ity libellous  to  temperance ;  no  one  knew 
what  it  was  but  Granny,  but  it  was  the  most 
ecstatic  mixture  mortal  tongue  could  taste. 

As  they  sat  thus  in  the  Elj'sian  Fields  of 
enjoyment,  Granny  between  them,  crooning 
beautiful  old-time  tales,  with  that  film  over 
her  faded  eyes  that  wrung  both  their  hearts 
with  aching  tenderness,  little  Pat  appeared 
at  the  door. 

"  Mammy  wants  ye,  Pleg !" 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  135 

They  laughed  him  to  scorn.  "  Yer  mam- 
my niver  sint  that  word  up  here!"  said 
Granny,  sternly.  And  it  was  true.  O'Ra- 
gan  Stuart  himself,  on  those  rare  occasions 
when  the  festive  cup  had  obscured  his  senses 
so  he  could  only  sprawl  on  his  hands  and 
knees  to  his  mother's  room — to  Granny  — 
was  safe  even  from  the  shadow  of  connubial 
reproach.  Pat  slunk  away  just  in  time  to 
avoid  his  mother,  bearing  a  tray. 

And  she  was  the  embodiment  of  gracious 
smiles — unaffected  smiles — true,  valiant  sym- 
pathy. "  Has  any  one  whativer,  anywheres, 
been  a-scoldin'  of  you,  Plontogonet,  my  son  ?" 
she  inquired,  stoutly. 

"  No,  mammy." 

"  Well  for  them !  If  a  son  of  mine,  that's 
descinded  from  such  a  descint  as  he  is,  can't 
go  on  a  bit  o'  progriss  like  his  perginnitors 
afore  him,  and  take  his  bit  ratinue  along, 
widout  a  little  haythen  Bamboo  o'  a  school- 
tacher,  that  niver  had  a  candle  blissed  to  her 
sowl,  sindin'  down  here  to  know  the  why 
and  the  whyfore  of  it,  then  I'll  be  askin'  the 
why  and  the  whyfore  too;  and  I'll  ask  it, 


136  STUART    AND   BAMBOO 

begorry,  so  she'll  know  whose  voice  it  is 
a-spakin' !" 

With  this  she  set  down  the  tray. 

"  There's  enough  for  the  three  o'  ye ;  and 
the  mate,"  said  Mrs.  O'Ragan,  blushing 
proudly,  "  is  drissed  wid  a  bit  o'  onion.  Take 
your  enj'yment !  Sure  ye're  like  three  pays 
in  the  one  pod !  and  I  big  Mrs.  Stuart's  par- 
don for  iver  callin'  her  a  bit  o'  a  Bamboo. 
She's  one  of  us  intirely." 

Thus  was  the  universal  aspect  of  things 
changed  by  the  safe  occupation  of  Sanctu- 
ary. Still  beaming  beneficently,  Mrs.  O'Ra- 
gan departed. 

Margaret  had  grown  used  to  the  orna- 
mentation of  meat  with  an  onion ;  she  fre- 
quently clothed  her  own  that  way  now, 
fancying,  by  experience,  that  it  provided 
more  enduring  sustenance,  and  with  her 
heart  resolutely  set  to  a  stainless  past. 

The  three  revelled  in  the  enjoyment  to 
which  Mrs.  O'Ragan  had  referred  them. 
Granny  told  more  tales,  at  some  of  which 
they  wept,  at  some  of  which  they  laughed ; 
but  in  either  case  Margaret  lifted  her  own 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  237 

dainty  handkerchief  to  wipe  the  tears  from 
Granny's  cheeks — for  the  lifting  of  her  arms 
to  that  height  was  a  painful  inconvenience 
to  Granny. 

"  Now  for  the  cake !"  said  Margaret,  and 
ran  lightly  down  the  stairs  to  fetch  it. 

On  opening  the  door  she  was  met  b}^  a 
flood  of  water.  The  kitten  —  the  kitten 
whom  she  had  taken  unwillingly,  but  with- 
out question  or  reproach,  from  the  very  scum 
of  society  and  the  throes  of  starvation — this 
kitten,  Avith  playful,  investigating  paws,  had 
turned  both  faucets  over  the  sink,  which  she 
had  left  spotlessly  dry;  her  four  loaves  of 
cake  were  submerged,  disintegrated  in  watery 
waste ;  the  floor  itself  was  becoming  a  lake. 

"Isaac!"  she  called,  with  instant  indiffer- 
ence to  formalities,  hearing  a  step  in  the  hall 
below.  Isaac  bounded  up  the  stairs,  turned 
off  the  water,  seized  all  the  mop-rags  avail- 
able. 

"  I'll  have  it  up  before  it  leaks  through 
the  floor.  I'll  see  to  it !"  cried  this  descend- 
ant of  Abraham,  cheerfully,  his  fine  linen 
already  clinging  limply  to  his  wrists. 


138  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

Margaret's  first  thought  had  been  that  it 
was  an  occasion  of  important  peril.  She 
rushed  to  Agnes.  "  Oh,  Agnes,  my  kitchen 
is  all  in  a  flood ;  the  kitten  turned  on  the 
water.  Isa  —  Mr.  Gilchrist  is  mopping  it. 
My  four  loaves  of  cake !" 

"  Have  dey  been  also  washed  ?" 

"  Oh  yes." 

"  Dar' !  I  am  so  glad ;  for  I  have  made 
you  one  loaf  of  cake  dis  mornin',  and  I  t'ink 
you  shall  have  so  much  you  will  not  weesh 
it.  Now  you  shall  tako  it."  It  was  already 
forced  into  Margaret's  hands.  "  Now  I  \vili 
go  help  my  dear  young  mans." 

Margaret  appeared  at  the  door,  awe-struck 
and  awe-inspiring  as  the  indirect  author  of 
a  considerable  dilemma,  holding  her  skirts 
chastely  from  the  indiscriminate  wreckage 
on  the  floor.  «  What  shall  /  do  ?" 

"  Not'ing — you  go  'way !  It  shall  make 
you  seeck." 

"  It  is  very  damp.  I  would  not  come  in 
here  just  now,"  said  Isaac,  wringing  his  mop 
in  an  original  but  effective  manner.  "  It  is 
very  malarious  in  here  just  now,"  he  laugh- 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  139 

eel ;  "  and,"  he  added,  very  kindly  and  seri- 
ously, "you  know  I  am  very  anxious  about 
you  all  the  time." 

.Margaret  blushed  with  her  old  brightness 
and  bit  her  lip.  "  I  do  not  know,"  said  she, 
tapping  with  her  boot  on  the  floor.  Then 
she  burst  out,  impulsively,  "I  do  not  know 
how  to  thank  you  both  !  I  do  not  know — " 

"  Go  'way !"  said  Agnes.  "  Go  'way  dis 
minute !  You  shall  be  seeck." 

Margaret  returned  to  Granny's  room  with 
a  better  loaf  of  cake  than  she  had  ever  made, 
or  could  ever  aspire  to  make,  in  her  life ;  and 
there,  in  Granny's  lap,  with  her  excess  of 
ribbon  trailing  and  bedraggled,  and  her  wet 
form  looking  preternaturally  thin,  sat  the 
kitten. 

Margaret's  eyes  flashed,  then  she  laughed. 

"  Well,  why  not  ?"  said  she ;  "  we  all 
come !"  She  related  the  recent  avalanche  of 
events. 

"  Well,  well,  she  knew  no  better,"  said 
Granny,  very  judicially,  stroking  the  out- 
cast. "  The  cake  tastes  like  Agnes's  cake." 
The  kitten  was  feasting:  too.  "  So  Isaac 


140  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

Gilky  ran  to  help  you  ?  This  big  soft  chair 
I'm  settin'  in  he  gav'  me.  I  never  knew 
what  comfort  was  afore,  since  I  got  rheu- 
matiz.  Run,  Plontogonet,  tell  Isaac  Gilky 
when  he's  finished  the  flure  to  coom  up 
here !" 

Margaret  heard  Plantagenet  calling,  naugh- 
tily, from  the  lower  flight,  in  a  modulated 
voice  that  did  not  reach  his  granny  : 

"Jerusalem!  Mr.  Jerusalem!  Granny 
wants  ye  when  ye' re  through  !" 

Margaret  met  his  return  with  eyes  of  hope- 
less reproach ;  he  leered  uneasily  and  hung 
his  head. 

After  a  while  Isaac  came  in,  beautifully 
renewed  in  linen. 

"  It  is  always  an  honor  to  be  called  to  you, 
mother,"  he  said,  with  a  low  bow  before  the 
ancient  dame. 

She  chuckled  melodiously,  and  held  his 
hand.  "Why  do  not  ye  marry  my  lassie, 
my  son?"  she  said,  nodding  with  tender 
family  pride  towards  Margaret.  "  "Why  do 
not  ye  marry  her  and  keep  her  out  o'  harm's 
way  ?" 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  141 

"  I  could  not  presume  to  that,  mother." 
He  stood  frankly  facing  the  old  woman. 

Plantagenet  drew  his  stool,  bustling  an- 
grily, over  to  Margaret's  side,  and  she  ex- 
changed her  look  of  reproach  for  one  of  un- 
speakable welcome.  They  sat  very  close 
together. 

When  Isaac  turned,  his  look  had  no  em- 
barrassment. "Your  kitchen  is  beautiful 
now,"  he  said,  his  great  dark  eyes  resting  on 
her  with  their  singularly  humane  and  per- 
sonally unmoved  expression. 

Plantagenet  thrust  his  shock  head  against 
her  shoulder,  she  put  an  arm  around  him ; 
she  was  very  pale. 

"  I  seem,"  she  said,  "  helplessly  to  impose 
on  the  kindness  of  a  great  many."  Her 
voice  was  a  little  bitter  and  very  cold. 

"  Ye're  my  fam'ly,  down  from  Sen'  Ma- 
rie!" asserted  Plantagenet,  fiercely,  "and 
Pll  get  yer  'states  back  for  ye  some  time, 
and  Pll  get  ye  outer  custerdy !"  Certainly 
the  two  had  the  look  of  clinging  to  each 
other  against  the  world. 

"Oh,  Granny,  how   could  you?"      Isaac 


142  STUART    AND   BAMBOO 

was  gone,  and  she  laid  her  head,  broken- 
hearted, in  Granny's  lap. 

"Why,  I've  r'ason — I've  r'ason  to,"  said 
Granny,  caressingly  and  undismayed.  "  Do 
not  ye  trust  him  ?  Do  not  ye  trust  him— 
some  way  or  'nother?  Now  tell  me  that." 

"  She  don't !"  cried  Plantagenet,  wrathful 
in  tears.  "  Her  and  me's  goin'  to  be  king  and 
quane  when  I'm  growed.  It  don't  make  no 
dif'rence  for  age  'mongst  sech  like,  it's  for 
p'litical  r'asons." 

"  You  dear  little  old  crazy  Irishman — my 
darling  boy,"  said  Margaret,  as  they  went 
down  the  stairs  together,  "you  must  never 
talk  like  that  again  !  I  do  not  like  it,  and  I 
won't  have  it — do  you  hear?" 

"  Yes'm,"  said  Plantagenet,  hopelessly,  lift- 
ing the  great,  pure,  desolate  stars  of  his  eyes 
to  her. 

When  she  had  thrust  the  kitten  into  the 
kitchen  before  the  disaster,  she  had  also 
thrown  her  slender  purse  on  the  table.  Now, 
alone,  she  took  it  up,  musing.  "  Just  iifty 
cents,  and  the  rent  due  Saturday.  Oh  heav- 
ens !  that  /— " 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  143 

But  the  purse  felt  strange.  She  opened  it, 
and  there,  obscuring  the  residue  of  her  own 
fortune,  were  five  crisp  ten-dollar  notes. 

"  Plantageuet !"  She  called  him  back. 
"Have  you  been — oh,  this  will  break  my 
heart — have  you  been — stealing  money  and 
putting  it  in  my  purse?  Kow,  by  Sen' 
Marie— by  Sen'  Marie  ?" 

"  By  Sen'  Marie,  I  didn' !"  said  Plantage- 
net.  It  was  enough ;  he  never  lied  by  that 
oath. 

"Agnes!"  She  went  to  Agnes.  "Have 
you  —  have  you  been  putting  money  in  my 
purse?" 

"  Navaire !"  said  Agnes,  whose  word  was 
sufficient  without  oath. 

"  I  could  hardly  be  mistaken,"  said  Mar- 
garet, recovering  through  her  quick  pride  a 
diplomatic  tone.  "  I  have  great  confidence 
in  Mr.  Gilchrist;  he  would  not,  of  course, 
Agnes,  through  however  generous  an  im- 
pulse, venture  to  do — so  insolent  a  thing?" 

"  My  dear  young  mans,  he  is  out !"  said 
Agnes,  dismounting  Margaret  from  her  high 
horse  with  simple  social  tenderness.  "Lat 


144  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

me  tell  you ;  dar  is  one  poor  Baptiste  meen- 
ester — you  call  it  ?  —  \vid  six  childs,  dat  so 
vary  few  go  listen  at  him  vary  soon  he  lose 
his  place  and  break  his  heart,  see?  So  every 
Wadnesday  night  at  dose  evenin'  meet'n'— 
you  call  it? — also  I  t'ink  Sunday,  my  dear 
young  mans  go  gadder  mans  and  boy  and 
girl  a  number  and  parsuade  dem  (I  t'ink 
also  he  gets  dem  '  jobs ')  to  listen  at  him." 

Margaret  looked  searchingly  at  Agnes. 
Agnes  returned  the  look  with  beautiful  fond- 
ness. Margaret  went  back  to  her  rooms. 


CHAPTER  IX 

MARGARET  purposely  loitered  by  a  side 
street  on  her  way  to  the  Herkimers  next 
morning  until  Isaac  should  take  his  usual 
swing  down  the  main  road. 

She  gracefully,  and,  as  it  were,  by  chance, 
intercepted  him.  "  I  fear  you  made  a  serious 
mistake  yesterday,  Mr.  Gilchrist.  Doubtless 
you  laid  your  purse  on  my  table  to  keep  it 
dry ;  here  it  is.  Have  you  mine  ?" 

"  Is  this  yours  ?"  said  Isaac,  solemnly,  tak- 
ing out  a  large  leathern  book,  worn  and 
masculine,  and  secured  with  a  rubber  band 
an  inch  wide. 

"  You  know  that  it  is  not.  Probably  mine 
is  lost ;  it  is  of  little  consequence.  Here,  at 
least,  is  yours." 

"But  I  cannot  take  your  money,  dear 
Mrs.  Stuart.  I  would  indeed,  if  I  needed  it, 
Heaven  bless  you  !  but  I  am  not  poor." 


ID 


146  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

"  I  am  poor,"  said  Margaret,  passionately, 
"  but  I  cannot  take  your  money !" 

As  he  would  not  reach  his  hand  to  take 
it,  she  let  it  drop  at  his  feet  and  turned 
logo. 

He  overtook  her,  the  little  bone  of  their 
contention  in  his  hand.  "Have  I  deserved 
this  of  you  ?"  he  said,  pale,  and  his  black  eyes 
blazing.  "  I — a  gentleman — who  hold  sacred 
the  very  ground  you  tread  on  !"  The  corpu- 
lent little  purse  was  pressed  back  into  her 
hand,  his  indignation  towering  over  hers. 
"  You  have  made  some  mistake ;  one  often 
does.  I  am  perfectly  justified  in  warranting 
you  that  the  contents  of  this  purse  are  yours." 

He  raised  his  hat  and  stalked  away,  of- 
fended dignity  in  his  gait.  Margaret  sucked 
in  her  underlip  with  the  same  childish  sob 
her  grandfather  had  died  with  at  eighty. 

"I'll  go  by  the  shore  road,"  she  said. 
"  I'll  sit  down  there  and  die.  I  do  not  care 
whether  I  ever  get  anywhere  or  not.  Ac- 
tors are  born,  not  made,"  she  mused,  with 
curling  lip,  having  found  a  comfortable  rock 
to  be  cast  away  upon.  "  I  will  post  it  to 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  147 

him.  How  mad  he  can  look !  It  is  not  the 
least  in  his  heart,  but  the  God  of  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob  helps  him  to  look  mad,  I 
suppose."  Having  thus  punished  the  absent 
and  defenceless  Israelite  with  the  fine  lash 
of  her  irony,  she  recovered  her  tone  some- 
what. "  He  '  holds  sacred  the  ground  I  tread 
upon !'  So  he  holds  sacred  the  earth  walked 
over  by  Mrs.  Shaughnessy,  Mrs.  O'Ragan, 
Agnes — all ;  he  makes  no  distinction.  And 
he  is  '  goody-goody ' — I  do  not  like  him." 

Her  eyes  wandered  desolately  out  to  sea, 
the  untamed  lakes  of  Plantagenet's  pet  his- 
tory in  them.  The  whistle  of  a  steam-launch 
blew,  and,  soon  after  the  signal,  groups  of 
young  people  began  to  gather  on  the  beach. 
Picnics  were  frequent  and  sacred  in  Yar- 
mouth, and  secular  employments  were  not 
allowed  to  interfere  with  them. 

So  Mildred's  form  appeared  conspicuously 
in  gala  dress — Jeff,  in  the  group,  as  canty 
and  loud  as  if  he  were  one  of  the  shop- 
hands. 

"  Well,  if  it  is  gone  so  far  that  they  will 
go  openly  on  a  picnic  together,  Helen  will 


148  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

soon  kno\v,"  sighed  Margaret.  Insensibly 
her  form  straightened;  a  sorrow  that  was 
not  for  herself  came  over  her  face  and  gave 
it  a  pensive  dignity.  Here  were  some  chil- 
dren more  vexedly  tossed  on  the  sea  of  life 
than  she  herself  was. 

Mildred  saw  her ;  she  hesitated,  then 
walked  boldly  over,  flauntingly  handsome. 

"We're  off  on  a  little  spree,"  she  said, 
rather  condescendingly  in  her  own  pride  of 
spirits,  seeing  Margaret  was  so  sad. 

"  You  have  not  been  to  see  me  for  a  long 
time,  Mildred." 

"  I've  been  very  busy." 

"  I  see  you  are  going  to  take  Jeff,"  said 
Margaret,  with  delusive  simplicity.  "You 
are  not  going  to  have  any  more  scruples." 

"  Yes,  I  am  going  to  take  him !  And,  no 
— I  am  not  going  to  kick  against  a  little 
good  luck  of  my  own,  if  I  happen  to  have 
it,  any  more !  I  find  folks  look  out  for 
themselves  in  this  world,  and  I  don't  know 
as  I'm  bound  to  beat  the  crowd  for  holi- 
ness." 

"  I  think  you  might  have  worn  to-day  the 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  149 

dress  I  gave  you,"  said  Margaret,  looking 
wounded  in  her  own  sweetly  audacious 
manner.  "  You  have  never  yet  worn  it." 

"I  can't!  I  feel  'funny'  about  that 
dress.  I'm  going  to  put  that  on  when  I'm 
good.  So  I'm  keeping  it  to  be  laid  out  in. 
I  shall  be  good  when  I'm  dead !" 

"  Like  the  Indians.  I  know.  I  often  feel 
that  way  myself." 

Mildred  looked  curiously  at  her.  "  You're 
getting  peaked,"  she  said,  trying  to  sustain 
her  manner  of  disinterested  gayety. 

"  Not  at  all.  Is  that  the  whistle  blowing 
for  you  ?" 

"  Say,"  said  the  girl,  bending  over  to  her 
eagerly,  "are  things  getting  rocky  with 
you?" 

"No,  you  ridiculous  child.  There's  the 
whistle  again  ;  go,  if  you  are  going." 

"  Oh,  I'm  going  fast  enough  !  I  ain't  go- 
ing to  break  my  heart  for  anybody.  Say, 
I've  made  up  my  mind  what  I'd  ought  to  do, 
and  I'm  going  to  do  it.  Jeff's  a  high-flyer — 
put  it  honest — and  so  am  I,  and  we  can  have 
patience  with  each  other — see  ?" 


150  STUAET   AND   BAMBOO 

"  You  are  not  already  married  ?" 

"No.  We  sha'n't  deny  it  when  we're 
married  ;  we'll  face  the  music.  And  Jeff  is 
only  waiting  for  me  !"  She  tossed  her  head. 

"  I  can  readily  believe  that."  Margaret's 
look  was  so  sympathetic  and  so  proud  in  the 
girl's  beauty,  Mildred  stepped  suddenly  down 
from  her  attitude  of  defiance. 

"  You  won't  throw  me  off,  will  you,  Mrs. 
Stuart  ?  You — you'd  be  my  friend  ?" 

"  I  will  be  as  good  a  friend  to  you  as  I 
know  how,  always,  Mildred,  and — I'll  pray 
God  every  day  to  help  me  to  be  a  better 
one." 

Mildred  did  not  look  down  into  Margaret's 
white  face  again  lest  she  should  have  fore- 
gone Jeff,  the  picnic,  and  all;  she  gathered 
up  her  resolution  and  rushed  away,  and  with 
shouting,  laughter,  and  the  blowing  of  horns 
the  launch  swept  out  of  sight. 

Margaret  arose  from  her  supine  mood  and 
pursued  her  own  way. 

"  Are  you  becoming  melancholic,  too  ?" 
said  Mrs.  Herkimer,  wistfully,  at  the  first 
sight  of  her. 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  151 

"  Never !  My  living  depends,  you  know, 
on  my  capacity  for  chirking." 

"  And  you  do  it  always ;  but  you  needn't, 
you  know,"  said  the  captain's  lady,  smiling 
wisely.  "  Judson  has  told  us  he's  going  to 
marry  ye,  if  he  can  get  ye — and  he  thinks 
he  can  get  ye." 

"  Then  /  should  be  melancholic,  and  have 
to  employ  people  to  chirk  me  up.  I 
think,  on  the  whole,  I'd  rather  be  a 
chirker." 

"  Well,  if  ye  could  stand  him,  Mrs.  Stuart, 
captain  and  me  would  be  pleased.  There's 
some  we  shouldn't  like  to  think  of  as  holding 
that  position  over  Helen ;  but  if  you  could 
make  up  your  mind  to  it,  we  should  all  be 
pleased." 

"  That  is  good  of  you.     Where  is  Stack  ?" 

"  Now  I've  got  to  break  your  heart." 

"Stack!" 

"No,  he  ain't  dead.  Captain's  took  him 
over  to  the  island.  He  was  gettin'  so  old, 
and  he  giv'  all  his  victuals  to  the  puppy ;  so 
cap'n  took  him  over  to  old  man  Deans  on 
the  island.  He'll  take  loviu'  care  of  him. 


152  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

But  Stack  seemed  to  understand  it  all — 
you'd  ought  to  seen  his  eyes !" 

"  I  don't  want  to  think  of  his  eyes !"  said 
Margaret,  flaming,  and  her  lips  trembling. 

She  stood  over  by  the  wall,  by  herself,  a 
moment,  and  Mrs.  Herkimer  had  a  vivid  sus- 
picion that  she  took  out  her  handkerchief. 

"Why,  he  wasn't  human,  Mrs.  Stuart!" 

Margaret  made  no  reply. 

"Well,  I've  got  something  else  to  break  to 
ye.  Judson's  comin'  over  to  dinner." 

"  It  would  not  become  me,  I  am  sure,"  said 
Margaret,  without  an}'  emotion  whatever,  "  to 
object  to  any  guest  you  might  choose  to  in- 
vite to  your  house." 

"  Well,  I  wish  ye'd  make  it  kind  of  pleas- 
ant for  him.  Ye're  a  woman  that's  been 
used  to  everything  that  ever  was.  If  ye  see 
a  book  ye  want,  ye  buy  it  without  thinkin' ; 
if  a  beggar  asks  ye  for  a  dime,  out  it  comes 
by  natur' ;  if  yer  gloves  begin  to  look  worn, 
why  it's  the  simple  law  and  the  prophets  to 
get  new  ones.  That's  the  way  it  should  be. 
I  like  it  in  ye.  But  sometimes  I  see,  perhaps 
with  winter  and  all  comin',  a  kind  of  dilem- 


STUAKT   AND   BAMBOO  153 

my,  perhaps,  corain'  to  ye.  Men — poor  creat- 
ures ! — have  to  be  taken  up  and  cared  for  by 
women,  and — the  Lord  forgive  me !  but  a 
man's  a  man  when  ye  look  for  any  comfort 
from  'em,  and  there  ain't  much  to  pick  and 
choose." 

Margaret,  whose  antecedents  were  as 
worldly  as  the  best,  naively  admitted  to 
herself  that  the  practical  tenor  of  this  ad- 
vice was  sound.  She  met  the  elder  Sprague 
at  table  with  a  forced,  slight  smile,  which 
wandered,  almost  in  its  inception,  into  a 
look  of  frank  pathos  in  another  direc- 
tion. 

"Captain,  how  could  you?" 

"I  know  it;  but  that  puppy  imposed  on 
the  old  fellow's — Christianity — there !  I  can't 
think  o'  no  other  name  for  Stack ;  and  the 
little  dogs  all  around  yapped  and  worried 
him,  and  Stack  never  would  turn  on  a  little 
dog — never !  But  I  tell  ye,  Avhen  the  tide 
serves,  to-morrow,  I'll  take  ye  all  over  to  see 
him." 

At  this,  Margaret,  in  spite  of  "  company  " 
and  Mrs.  Herkimer's  observing  scandal,  calm- 


154  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

ly  put  away  the  choice  bits  of  her  meat,  as 
usual. 

"  Too  bad !  too  bad !"  said  Judson  Sprague, 
attempting,  with  his  usual  salve  of  comment, 
to  enter  generally  into  the  conversation. 

"  He'll  be  taken  the  best  of  care  of,"  contin- 
ued the  captain,  unheeding;  "  but  I  miss  him. 
If  it  wasn't  done,  it  never  would  be  done. 
When  I  pushed  the  boat  off,  Mrs.  Stuart,  and 
left  him,  he  didn't  try  to  come.  He  under- 
stood, and  he  minded ;  but  if  ye'd  seen— 

The  captain,  without  shame,  turned  his 
head  away  and  had  recourse  to  his  pocket- 
handkerchief.  A  short  and  distinct  snivel 
was  heard  from  this  man  of  hardy  experi- 
ence and  cold  heart. 

Margaret  bit  in  her  underlip  with  her  own 
peculiar  gasp  of  grief. 

Mrs.  Herkimer  coughed  sternly.  "  If  you're 
both  going  to  cry,"  said  she,  "  I  must  be  ex- 
cused from  table.  I'm  particularly  depressed 
to-day,  anyway.  Of  course  Mr.  Sprague  and 
I  can't  expect  to  stand  in  the  affections  of 
you  two  along  o'  dogs." 

"Pshaw,  Nell!" 


STUAKT   AND    BAMBOO  155 

"  Did  you  ever  weep  for  me,  Captain  Her- 
kimer?" 

"Why,  what  is  there  to  weep  about  ye 
for?" 

"  If  you  ever  thought  upon  my  sufferings, 
you  wouldn't  need  to  ask." 

"I  don't  see  as  ye  do  suffer.  Ye  have 
everything  ye  want,  and  I  take  ye  a  sail 
every  pleasant  day  when  the  tide  serves." 

A  sigh,  like  the  last,  long-despairing  breath 
of  an  autumn  gust,  escaped  Mrs.  Herkimer. 
" '  Seein'  they  shall  see  and  shall  not  under- 
stand,' "  said  she,  solemnly,  leading  the  way 
from  the  table  before  the  captain's  fatuous 
brain  could  frame  a  reply. 

In  the  parlor  the  captain  sank  down  with 
smiling  comfort  into  one  of  the  great  chairs. 
There  was  a  look  of  permanency  about  him 
which  was  like  cordial  to  Margaret's  secret 
soul. 

"  Captain  Herkimer,"  said  his  lady,  "  I 
wish  particularly  to  see  you  in  the  h'berary." 

"  Oh,  I  forgot,  Nell,"  said  the  captain,  leap- 
ing, with  a  blush,  to  his  feet,  "  what  ye — 
what  ye  told  me  afore  dinner !" 


156  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

Mrs.  Herkimer  retreated  with  her  prize  of 
perspicuity  in  tow,  and  her  manner  suggested 
disgust  and  bodily  chastisement.  Sarcastic 
expostulation,  however,  was  the  only  sound 
borne  back  upon  the  air. 

Margaret  did  not  condescend  to  blush. 
She  faced  her  companion  easily,  with  a  little 
ripple  of  cool  laughter. 

So  ostensibly  left  to  his  designs,  the  pluto- 
crat of  Yarmouth  did  not,  however,  waver. 
He  had  the  captain's  lack  of  astute  percep- 
tion, without  his  ingenuousness. 

"I  am  glad  that  chance  has  offered  me 
this  gracious  opportunity,"  he  said,  inelliflu- 
ously. 

"I  ascribe  it,  frankly,"  said  Margaret,  a 
gleam  of  laughter  still  slightly  disclosing  her 
white  teeth,  "  to  Mrs.  Ilerkimer's  good  gen- 
eralship." 

"  Ah,  too  bad !  But  surely  you  will  be 
serious  with  me  when  I  lay  my  heart  at  your 
feet  and  ask  you  to  marry  me  ?" 

"And  would  you  be  serious  in  asking  me 
to  marry  you,  knowing  that  I  have  no  regard 
whatever  for  you  2" 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  157 

"  Ah,  most  serious ;  for  I  should  make  it 
the  blissful  occupation  of  my  existence  to 
win  that  regard." 

"  I  think  the  less  time  you  devoted  to  the 
purpose  the  more  likely  you  would  be  to 
succeed,"  said  Margaret,  in  simple  self-de- 
fence, induced  by  the  horror  of  his  ingrati- 
ating leer. 

"  Ah,  you  shall  be  as  cruel  as  you  like,  dear 
Mrs.  Stuart,  only  say  '  Yes '." 

"  I  cannot  do  that,"  said  the  lady,  with 
sudden  determination,  "  but  I  will  consider 
your  very  kind  expressions.  I  will  think  of 
what  you  have  said,"  she  added,  restlessly. 
"  Will  you  excuse  me  ?  I  must  be  on  my 
Avay  home." 

"Am  I  to  congratulate  you?"  said  Mrs. 
Herkimer,  with  low -voiced  gravity,  at  the 
door. 

"  Yes,  on  my  present  escape." 

The  captain's  lady  indulged  in  surrepti- 
tious mirth.  "  I  knew  ye  wouldn't  bite  at 
the  first  fly.  But  Judson  can  fish  as  patient 
as  the  foolishest  of  'em." 

The  captain  was  farther  on,  at  the  gate. 


158  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

His  sraile  was  fatherly  and,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, idiotic. 

"  Wai,  ye  got  it  all  fixed  up?"  he  inquired, 
with  heroic  cheerfulness. 

"  No,  it  was  another  exhibition  of  my  en- 
counter with  the  eel.  I  screamed  and  ran 
away." 

"  I'm  dum  glad  on  it — dum !"  said  the  hero 
of  the  seas,  revelling  in  untamed  English  in 
the  absence  of  his  spouse,  "for  your  sake! 
For  Helen's  sake,  and  ourn,  I  wish  ye  could. 
I  don't  want  to  spread  reports  about  Judson 
—but,  slippery  ?  Yes,  sir ;  some  of  his  trans- 
actions have  been  slippery.  Jeff's  honest, 
but  he's  onsteady.  I  don't  bite  that  way  for 
Helen  so  fierce  as  Nell  does."  He  sighed. 

Margaret  did  not  say  that  if  she  married 
Judson  Sprague  she  was  likely  to  be  mother- 
in-law  to  Duds  Sen'  Tammy  of  the  lobster 
factory,  rather  than  to  the  heiress  of  the  Her- 
kimers. 

"When  is  the  picnic  launch  in?"  she  asked. 
The  captain  was  a  recognized  time-table  on 
the  incoming  of  all  craft. 

"  Due  at  seven ;  but  when  them  high-flown 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  159 

birds  o'  plumage  from  the  shops  get  off,  I  al- 
ways allow  'em  an  extra  hour  for  flutin'  and 
sand-gallopinV 

Drawn  by  some  irresistible  impulse,  Mar- 
garet found  herself,  by  moonlight,  on  the 
rock  where  she  had  been  cast  away  in  the 
morning,  still  waiting  for  the  boat -signal. 
It  came,  alarmingly  tardy,  and  jubilantly  de- 
fiant of  the  fact.  Margaret  thought  the 
gayety  of  some  vinously  irresponsible,  and 
their  steps  marked  by  a  suspicious  irresolu- 
tion. 

Among  this  latter  number  Mildred  and 
Jeff  emerged  and  came  digressively,  without 
yet  seeing  her,  towards  the  cluster  of  rocks 
where  she  sat. 

Jeff  carried  a  market-basket  in  which  jelly- 
tumblers,  or  champagne  -  bottles,  or  both, 
clattered  noisily  as  he  walked,  without  his 
particular  observation.  Mildred  lurched 
against  him,  to  her  own  self -astonishment, 
and  they  both  laughed  with  endearing  good- 
nature. 

"  Hide  basket  here  in  rocks  till  nex'  pic- 
nic," said  Jeff.  "Beg  pardon!  Oh,  Mrs. 


160  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

Stuart !  How  d'  ye  do  ?  'Lighted !"  Jeff 
gave  his  cap  a  low  sweep. 

Mildred  looked  as  though  she  had  seen  a 
ghost.  "  Been  here,  deares'  friend,  all  day  ?" 
she  inquired,  with  great  aplomb,  however. 

"  Shall  be  'lighted  t'  see  two  such  lovely 
ladies  home,"  said  Jeff,  the  color  in  his  genial, 
boyish  face  not  disparaged  by  the  coldness 
of  the  moonlight. 

"  Jeff,"  said  Mildred,  severely,  her  beauti- 
ful hair  tossed  about  her  Madonna-like  feat- 
ures, "I  won't  have  it!  We'd  make  holy 
show  o'  'rselves.  You  take  Mrs.  Stuart.  I 
go  home  'lone !" 

"  Goin'  to  see  you  home.  Don't  care  a 
damn !"  said  Jeff ;  a  true  Lochinvar,  in  spite 
of  difficulties. 

"Go  as  quietly  straight  home  as  you 
can,"  said  Margaret,  who  had  risen,  laying 
her  hand  in  sane  admonishment  on  Jeffrey's 
shoulder.  "  I  will  see  Mildred  home." 


CHAPTER  X 

MARGAEET  felt  that  she  had  reason  to 
doubt  whether  the  willingness  of  Mildred 
and  Jeff  to  excuse  each  other's  delinquencies 
would  much  conspire,  on  the  whole,  to  their 
mutual  benefit. 

Mildred  was  in  such  a  state  that  she  had 
brought  her  to  her  own  room,  covering,  with 
the  alert  secrecy  of  a  sister,  her  unsteady 
progress  up  the  backstairs. 

"Good -night,  deares'  friend,"  Mildred 
had  said  with  the  utmost  complacency,  ac- 
cepting at  once  the  proffered  comforts  of 
Margaret's  bed.  So  Margaret  had  propped 
herself  in  her  chair  by  the  fire.  The  girlish 
face  on  the  pillow,  as  she  glanced  at  it  now 
and  then,  was  so  chaste  in  feature  and  so 
free  from  any  mark  of  dissipation,  she  found 
it  hard  to  believe  that  Mildred  had  gone,  that 
night,  to  the  extent  of  actual  intoxication. 


162  STUAKT   AND   BAMBOO 

At  all  events,  her  heart  was  as  savagely 
maternal  over  her  as  over  her  other  wan- 
dering star,  Plantagenet.  No  one  should 
know,  no  one  should  accuse,  no  one  should 
reproach. 

Present  defence  rather  than  mental  analy- 
sis of  the  misdoings  of  her  friends,  was  Mar- 
garet's attitude;  wherein  she  and  Granny 
Stuart,  in  her  "  Sanctuary  "  up-stairs,  did  in- 
deed seem  members  corporate  of  one  imme- 
morial family. 

"  What  have  they  been  doin'  to  ye,  my 
quane,  darlin'  ?"  For  Margaret,  restless  her- 
self, seeing  Mildred  safely  sleeping,  and  know- 
ing that  Granny's  lamp  was  burning,  had 
softly  made  her  way  thither  over  the  tene- 
ment stairs  in  a  dressing-gown  fit  for  a 
princess.  Margaret  was  getting  reduced  to 
some  of  her  finest  apparel. 

"What  have  they  been  doin'  to  ye?" 

"  Oh,  Granny,  I  love  to  come  to  you  even 
when  I'm  not  abused !" 

If  she  had  been  born  of  Granny's  own 
self,  a  fiercer  love -light  could  not  have 
flamed  in  the  faded  old  eyes.  "Well  ye 


STUAKT   AND   BAMBOO  163 

may  !  The  first  day  ye  came,  Bridget  O'Ka- 
gan  cam'  up  here  to  me.  '  She's  a  bamboo,' 
says  she.  '  Whish  !'  says  I,  'I  see  her  come 
up  the  path.  She's  a  Stuart,'  says  I.  '  What's 
her  name  ?'  says  I.  '  Stuart,'  says  she."  Gran- 
ny chuckled  with  spring-time  laughter. 

" '  Her  husband's  did,'  says  she,  '  wid  no 
insurance  on  him.  Her  two  babbies  wint 
afther,  like  aingil  sirruphs,  callin'  Daddy,' 
says  she.  '  She  had  a  raillen  dollars  in  the 
banks,'  says  she, '  and  thim  as  counts  it  over 
ivery  Satherday  night  grapped  it  up — the 
thaves!  and  rinned  away  wid  it.  No  hide 
or  hair  to  thim  was  iver  found,'  says  she." 

Margaret  listened  in  stupefied  admiration 
throughout  to  this  unconscious  testimony  to 
Mrs.  O'Ragan's  glories  in  the  line  of  fictional 
art. 

"  But  it  was  not  that  way  at  all,  Granny, 
dear." 

"  Niver  mind  !  niver  mind  !"  said  Granny, 
still  on  fire,  and  unheeding.  "I'll  see  ye 
blissed  yet,  I  will !" 

The  old  face  became  at  once  softened  and 
broodingly  wise.  For  Granny  was  no  com- 


164  STUAET   AND    BAMBOO 

mon  old  woman  ;  she  had  tremendous  ideals ; 
she  had  a  heart  unzoned  by  any  earthly  cir- 
cumference. 

Isaac  Gilchrist  heard  three  raps  of  Gran- 
ny's poker  on  her  wood  -  box.  Margaret 
thought  she  was  merely  tightening  the  han- 
dle of  that  article.  Margaret  knew  some  of 
the  signals  of  the  tenements,  but  not  all. 
She  was  not  even  alarmed  by  the  fact  that 
Granny  took  off  her  apron  with  the  plain 
button  in  the  back  and  put  on  the  white  one 
with  strings.  Isaac  had  received  by  the 
post  that  night  a  package,  whose  authorship 
he  instantly  divined;  he  knew  the  contents 
before  he  opened  it,  and  he  seemed  to  dread 
to  open  it. 

At  last  he  did  so,  possessed  by  the  vision 
of  a  note,  perhaps,  wafting  the  same  elusive 
perfume,  some  gracious  words  commensurate 
with  his  own  ardor  of  simple  loyalty. 

But  there  was  no  note;  there  was  only 
the  sordid  fact  of  the  fifty  dollars. 

Slowly  he  unbound  the  leathern  book  and 
put  the  notes  therein.  With  extreme  pa- 
tience he  folded  the  wrapper  with  the  hand- 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  165 

writing,  and  that  he  placed  deliberately, 
with  persevering  care,  in  the  breast-pocket 
of  his  coat. 

He  then  took  an  attitude  before  his  fire, 
with  both  hands  clasped  about  his  knees, 
and,  without  paper  or  pen,  pursued  for  a 
long  time  his  desolate  researches  into  hu- 
man philosophy. 

It  was  thus  that  he  heard  Granny  rap 
three  times  with  her  poker  on  her  wood- 
box. 

"  Poor  old  mother !"  said  he,  rising.  "  She's 
in  trouble  for  somebody.  It's  never  herself 
— grand  old  soul !" 

So  he  sprang  up  the  stairs  and  rapped  at 
the  door. 

"  Coom  ye  in !  Why  —  it's  Isik  !"  said 
Granny,  with  a  diplomatic  surprise  worthy 
of  worldlier  circles. 

Isaac  smiled ;  he  never  betrayed  a  lady. 
Margaret  looked  pathetically  glorious  on 
her  stool  in  Granny's  poor  little  room. 

"  I  came  to  say  good-night,  mother.  You 
must  pardon  my  coming  so  late — I  was  very 
busy." 


106  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

"I'll  pardon  yer  comin'  late,  but  niver 
yer  goin'  without  a  word,  Isik." 

So  Isaac  took  Plantagenet's  stool.  The 
news  of  the  day,  the  weather,  his  constant 
interest  in  both  ladies — on  all  these  themes 
he  discoursed  in  his  usual  calm  manner. 

Margaret,  in  Granny's  immediate  proxim- 
ity and  leaning  against  her  chair,  had  at  first 
regarded  him  with  eyes  in  which  a  hint  of 
contemptuous  triumph  was  not  easily  con- 
cealed. 

As  he  continued  to  meet  her  look  so 
gravely  and  unconsciously,  with  uninter- 
mitted  kindness,  she  grew  safely  piqued. 

"  Did  you  receive  it  back  ?"  said  the  great 
eyes  from  the  queenly  head  leaning  against 
Granny's  chair.  "  Do  you  not  think  I  have 
won  ?  I  usually  win.  Are  you  not  punished 
for  your  insolence  ?" 

But  the  Jew  pursued  the  even  tenor  of  his 
way. 

"  One  o'  ye  comes  to  me,  and  then  the 
ither  comes  to  me !"  said  Granny,  gladly, 
unobservant  of  all  tactics  save  her  own. 
"  Some  time  ye'll  be  comin'  to  me  togither!" 


STUART    AND    BAMBOO  167 

Margaret  laughed  slightly,  without  regard, 
as  though  she  were  at  some  small  theatre  con- 
doning the  crudeness  of  the  actors. 

"  Here,  take  her,  my  son !"  continued  Gran- 
ny, aloud,  in  the  uninterrupted  flow  of  her 
innocent  aspirations — "  take  her  to  the  priest 
and  marry  her.  She's  fit  for  ye !  Come  and 
take  her,  I  say,  and  take  keer  o'  her.  She's 
wurstlin'  wi'  the  world,  poor  darlin',  and 
she's  no  fit  to  wurstle  wi'  the  world." 

"  Granny  —  Granny,  you  are  going  too 
far !"  Margaret  drew  her  head  back,  color- 
less. 

"  ISTot  to  -  night,  mother,"  said  Isaac,  very 
calmly,  rising.  "  Yes,  I  will  take  her  to  the 
priest  and  marry  her,  but  not  to-night." 

He  held  out  his  hand  to  Granny  and  bow- 
ed low  over  hers.  He  held  out  his  hand, 
firm,  unshrinking,  warm,  to  Margaret.  She 
turned  from  him  and  went  to  the  window. 
So  he  bowed  where  she  had  stood,  and  with- 
out one  glance  of  understanding  with  Gran- 
ny thereafter — so  grave  a  gentleman  was  he 
—left  the  room. 

Margaret,  standing  frigid  by  the  window, 


168  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

heard  a  sob.     She  turned.    Yes,  there  was 
the  film  over  Granny's  old  eyes. 

"  I  wouldn't  hurt  a  hair  o'  yer  sweet  head  ! 
I  loove  ye !  I  loove  ye  !" 

That  straining  film,  the  heart-broken  catch- 
ing of  the  breath  in  one  so  aid,  so  infinitely 
loving — though  Granny  had  humbled  her  to 
the  dust,  Margaret  would  have  rushed  to  her, 
stung  by  such  compunction,  put  her  arms 
about  her  and  taken  to  her  own  cheeks  the 
tears  from  those  withered  ones. 

"Ye  should  no'  be  so  highty-tighty,  little 
one !  I  been  a  lang,  lang  journey  in  this  auld 
world.  I  worked  a  lang,  lang  stent  in  it  afore 
me  auld  honds  failed  me.  I  seen  mony  men 
and  mony  things.  There's  no  mony  men  like 
Isik.  When  I  was  a  little  girl  like  you,  I  seen 
the  rivers  rollin'  in  a  far,  far  land- 
Granny's  old  mind  was  moving,  as  it  did 
sometimes,  in  large  rather  than  distinct  areas. 
"A  little  girl  like  me!  Oh,  look  at 
me,  Granny !"  Margaret  laughed  tenderly 
through  her  own  tears. 

"Aye,  so  ye  be  !  But  I  don't  worry  of  ye 
anymore.  Isik '11  keep  liairm  from  ye.  He 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  169 

b'langs  to  Holy  Church.  He  don't  know  it, 
the  chiel,  but  he  b'langs.  So  do  ye,  but  ye're 
no'  so  true  to  the  faith  as  Isik,  my  poor  dar- 
lin'.  No,  ye're  no'  so  true  to  yer  faith  as 
Isik." 

"  There  is  one  promise,  at  least,"  thought 
Margaret,  going  down  the  stairs,  "  that 
'  Isaac'  will  never  be  held  accountable  for  !" 

Granny's  model  young  man  heard  the  soft 
swish  of  that  descending  dress.  His  black 
eyes  glowed  exultantly,  as  though  his  hearth- 
fires  were  already  kindled. 

Margaret,  after  another  shielding  look  at 
the  erring  beauty  on  her  bed,  composed  her- 
self again  in  her  chair  as  best  she  could. 


CHAPTER  XI 

MARGARET  slipped  out  early  to  her  kitchen 
to  prepare  a  breakfast.  She  left  the  door 
ajar  lest  Mildred  should  escape  unobserved 
— a  thing  which  that  young  woman,  with 
a  face  of  dark  despair,  came  very  near 
doing. 

"  Mildred,  come !  Help  me!  I'm  in  such 
a  mess !" 

Margaret's  house-keeping  was  always  con- 
veniently—  and  that  without  much  affecta- 
tion— serving  the  purposes  of  tragedy. 

"The  bacon  fat's  on  fire!" 

Mildred  subdued  this  holocaust,  but  there 
was  a  fire  of  shame  on  her  own  face  not  so 
easily  vanquished. 

"I  little  thought,"  said  Margaret,  "that, 
because  I  happened  to  have  a  very  plain 
breakfast,  you  would  not  sit  down  and  eat 
it  with  me."  And  the  reproach  in  her  eyes 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  171 

was  for  this  present  inhumanity  of  treat- 
ment, and  for  nothing  else. 

"  I've  had  your  bed  all  night,  now  you 
want  me  to  eat  your  breakfast." 

"  Once,"  said  Margaret,  "  there  was  a  cer- 
tain woman  went  down  by  boat  to  Yar- 
mouth, and  thereupon  she  fell  deadly  ill,  and 
a  certain  dear  girl  with  a  great  big  heart 
gave  her  her  own  nest  in  the  cabin,  and  made 
her  warm,  and  cured  her  headache,  and  sat 
up  herself  all  night  long." 

The  tears  began  to  run  down  Mildred's 
cheeks  and  fall  on  her  burnt  bacon,  which 
was  already  exceedingly  bitter. 

"•  You'll  pity  me  and  be  good  to  me,  but 
you  won't  love  me  any  more." 

Margaret  rushed  over  from  her  chair  and 
practically  demonstrated  the  falsehood  of 
this  statement  by  a  warm  and  tenacious  em- 
brace. 

"  I  never  did — that  thing  before,"  sobbed 
the  girl.  "  Jeff  didn't  take  it  out  of  the  cellar, 
though — he  bought  it  himself !" 

"  Well,  that  is  something  to  be  proud  of, 
at  least." 


172  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

"  And  we  were  th-thirsty,  and  it  did  t-taste 
nice ;  but  it's  like  everything  else — you  have 
to  c-cry  in  the  end." 

"  I  know  it,"  said  Margaret,  with  a  look 
only  of  the  clearest  sympathy.  "I  wish  I 
were  unselfish  and  good,  so  I  could  talk  to 
you  about  self-denial  and  spurning  tempta- 
tion. But  I  will  only  tell  you  that  when  I 
discovered  you  down  at  the  beach  last  night, 
and  when  you  lay  there  on  the  bed,  it  just 
about  broke  my  heart;  for  I've  always  been 
so  proud  of  you,  and  ever  since  the  first  time 
I  saw  you,  you  know,  it  has  seemed  as  though 
you  belonged  to  me." 

"/seemed  to  belong  to  you?" 

"Why,  certainly.  Nothing  in  the  world 
could  ever  alter  that." 

"  I  guess,"  said  Mildred,  rising  with  a  sud- 
den intimation  of  buoyancy  where  she  had 
been  downcast  and  confused, "  if  I  ever  touch 
that  stulf  again,  it  '11  be  poisoned  first  and  set 
on  fire!  But  see  here!  could — could  things 
be  getting  a  little  rocky,  perhaps,  for  you  to 
stand  ?" 

"  Nonsense !    Do  you  think  you  deserved 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  173 

a  sumptuous  breakfast  this  morning?  Run 
along  to  }Tour  work,  and  do  not  criticise  the 
means  I  have  seen  fit  to  use  for  your  chasten- 
ing." 

Never  had  Margaret's  laugh  sounded  mer- 
rier. When  Mildred  was  gone,  however,  she 
leaned  her  head  on  the  table  in  dreary  appre- 
hension : 

" '  Rocky  '  ?  Oh,  what  is  this  coming  to  ? 
Yesterday  I  found  it  pecuniarily  convenient 
to  purchase  only  three  rolls,  and  the  shop- 
girl had  the  good-natured,  unconscious  heart- 
lessness  to  ask  me  if  I  '  was  not  taking  big 
chances  ?'  What  is  it  all—" 

"  For'erd,  march !  Folly  yer  leader !"  called 
the  voice  of  the  captain  of  the  "  Pluck  and 
Liver  Corps  " ;  and  with  an  ever-ready  aspira- 
tion to  be  diverted  somehow  from  her  sor- 
rows, Margaret  rose  and  went  to  the  window. 

She  was  astonished  to  be  the  only  visible 
spectator  of  the  painfully  elaborated  scene 
there  in  progress.  The  mature  occupants 
of  the  tenements  being  mostly  employed  in 
the  rear  at  this  hour,  Plantagenet  was  fear- 
lessly re-enacting  some  of  the  bloodiest  of 


174  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

barbaric  annals  in  the  very  front  of  Catholic 
Christendom. 

The  dirty  and  wondering  little  Kate 
Shaughnessy — six  years  comprised  her  earth- 
ly experience  —  was  erected  upon  a  scaffold, 
which  consisted  exclusively  of  an  inverted 
wash-tub,  time-worn  and  inclined  to  sprawl, 
and  poised  on  the  rim  of  this  same  tragic 
elevation  stood  Tommy  Sullivan,  brandish- 
ing the  executioners  axe,  a  weapon  composed 
in  this  case,  as  Margaret  rejoiced  to  see,  sim- 
ply of  a  broad  chip,  tied,  with  the  natural 
indecision  of  a  white  cotton  string,  to  a 
broom  handle. 

But  even  this  was  not  intended  to  descend 
upon  Katie.  She  represented  Sen'  Marie 
Stuart,  whom  Plantagenet,  taking  the  se- 
quel of  his  chosen  history  deliberately  into 
his  own  hands,  was  about  to  rescue. 

The  marvelling  Katie  had,  in  a  less  inter- 
esting hour  of  the  morning,  stolen  a  cucum- 
ber from  a  neighboring  garden;  it  was  too 
large  for  the  pocket  of  the  one  garment  she 
wore,  and  she  now  grasped  its  exposed  portion 
convulsively  with  her  broad  red  little  hand, 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  175 

as  a  safeguard  against  the  astounding  events 
of  time. 

" For' erd,  march!  Folly  yer  leader!''  It 
was  not  as  a  pedestrian  that  Plantagenet  ap- 
peared at  this  proud  crisis.  As  the  troop,  to 
the  clatter  of  several  tin -pail  covers  and 
one  diseased  mouth-organ,  swung  round  the 
corner  of  the  house  to  the  rescue,  Margaret 
beheld  her  boy,  the  remnants  of  "  H.  M.  S. 
Mohawk"  courageously  flaunting  one  ear, 
seated  on  his  own  mother's  cow. 

The  cow,  accustomed  to  being  led,  followed 
in  demure  obedience  the  one  small  and  wicked 
boy  at  the  other  end  of  her  halter,  whose 
trousers  were  held  in  place  by  a  meat  skewer. 
As  the  cavalcade  approached,  Katie's  immu- 
table wonder  changed  instantly  to  a  thorough- 
ly sensible  yell  of  distinct  distress.  The  boy 
with  the  skewer  halted  the  cow  at  the  block, 
where  she  bent  at  once  to  an  unperturbed 
search  for  grass.  Plantagenet  reached  over 
to  draw  up  Marie  Stuart,  alias  Katie,  to  his 
saddleless  mount.  She  resisted  lustily.  In 
view  of  execution  she  had  maintained  a 
calm,  even  an  awesomely  expectant  atti- 


176  STUART    AND   BAMBOO 

tilde,  but  she  naturally  objected  to  being 
rescued. 

In  the  frantic  struggle,  the  top  of  the 
wash-tub  caved  in,  and  Katie  went  with  it ; 
the  cow,  startled  at  last  both  by  the  spec- 
tacle and  the  crash,  lifted  her  head,  swung 
her  tail,  and  flung  out  to  the  highway  with 
Plantagenet  clinging  dauntlessly  to  her  neck. 
The  array,  without  the  slightest  regard  for  a 
long -sustained  course  of  martial  discipline, 
tore  after  Plantagenet  and  the  cow.  And 
ere  Margaret  could  descend  to  a  wholly  in- 
formal rescue  of  the  quasi  queen,  both  Mrs. 
O'Ragan  and  Mrs.  Shaughnessy  stood  on  the 
spot. 

"  'Tis  a  fine  lot  o'  milk  yer  coo  '11  be  giv- 
in'  the  night,  Bridget,  wid  that  divil  of  a 
Pleg  ridin'  the  poor  domesthic  cr'atur'  all 
over  town  on  his  haythen  progrissions !" 

Mrs.  O'Ragan  had  this  thought  herself 
and  was  wrathy ;  but  at  this  sally,  the  point 
of  her  anger  turned. 

"  Sure  I  can't  hilp  it  at  all,  if  my  childern 
is  that  will  descinded  they  be  rampajus  wid 
the  glory  of  it.  It's  not  her  coo  a  thrue 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  177 

mother's  heart  Vd  be  thinkin'  of,  it's  her 
darlin'  child." 

"  Oh,"  cried  Mrs.  Shaughnessj,  with  a  sar- 
castic laugh,  "I  lay  yer  worry,  then.  Never 
fear.  Pleg  Stuart  '11  get  home  safe  to  his 
supper  though  he's  drowndit  by  sea,  and 
flailed  by  land.  'Tis  poor  little  innercents 
like  my  Katie  is  in  danger  o'  bein'  kilt  by 
the  likes  o'  him.  Will  ye  have  a  bit  o'  salt 
on  yer  fruit,  my  sweet  lamb?"  said  Mrs. 
Shaughnessy,  straining  Katie  to  her  bosom, 
who,  in  turn,  had  renewed  her  embrace  of 
her  cucumber. 

"If  ye  allow  yer  child  to  ate  a  grane 
melon  o'  that  size  —  espicially  one  that 
she's  broke  God's  holy  law  by  st'alin',  don't 
be  layin'  the  dith  of  her  to  my  Pleg !"  said 
Mrs.  O'Kagan. 

Mrs.  Shaughnessy  set  Katie  down  and 
squared  off.  Mrs.  O'Ragan  was  drawing  her 
waist-cable  to  the  seeming  point  of  belliger- 
ency, when  a  dapper  form  appeared  in  the 
distance  which  drew  the  absorbing  gaze  of 
both. 

"  'Tis  old  Sprague  for  his  rint.    The  low- 

12 


178  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

ness  of  him !  to  go  around  collectin'  of  his 
own  rints !" 

"Thrue  for  ye,  Bridget  Stuart.  'Tis  a 
thrue  word  ye're  sp'akin'." 

"I  hope  yer  headache  is  betther  to-day, 
Kate  Shaughnessy." 

"Much  better,  Mrs.  O'Ragan  Stuart, 
ma'am — thank  ye,  kindly." 

"Come  in  and  have  a  sup  o'  tay  wid  me, 
Mrs.  Shaughnessy,  ma'am.  I  was  jist  put- 
tin'  the  same  to  draw  on  the  stove  whin 
Plontogonet  distressed  me  so  wid  his  be- 
havior. Faith,  he's  a-wearin'  the  life  o' 
me." 

"  Plontogonet's  a  fine,  handsome  boy  as 
iver  slipped  abroad,  and  '11  soon  be  out-grow- 
in'  his  bit  o'  wildness." 

In  sweet  amicability,  the  two  climbed  the 
steps  together,  Katie  following  with  her  cu- 
cumber, her  round  face  wearing  its  normal 
expression  of  blank  astonishment. 

Margaret,  whose  rooms  were  sublet  to  her 
by  Mrs.  O'Kagan,  had  no  dealing  with  the 
rent-collector,  and  not  desiring  to  meet  him 
on  the  way  out,  she  waited  till  he  should 


STUART    AND    BAMBOO  179 

have  made  his  departure  before  starting  on 
her  walk  to  the  Herkimers. 

But  he  anticipated  her  by  an  emissary- 
no  less  than  Mrs.  O'Ragan  herself,  in  a  state 
of  disgust. 

"  "Tis  old  Sprague  has  been  skinnin'  us  of 
our  rint  again,  Mrs.  Stuart,  dear;  and  he 
says  he  has  a  missage  for  you  from  Mrs. 
Herkimer,  so  I  sint  him  in  me  parlor,  know- 
in'  I  could  sphrinkle  it  wid  holy  wather  after 
I  have  it  rid  of  the  prisence  of  him." 

"  Won't  you  sprinkle  a  little  over  me  be- 
fore I  go  down  ?"  said  Margaret,  meeting  the 
other's  eyes  with  full  solemnity. 

"  Oh,  darlin'  one,  when  ye  come  back  to 
the  church  that  loves  ye,  ye  shall  have  an 
annointin' — niver  forget !" 

Margaret  opened  the  "parlor"  door  and 
stood  leaning  against  it.  Her  attitude  ex- 
pressed not  so  much  dislike  as  a  weary  in- 
difference. 

"Mrs.  Herkimer  wished  me  to  remind  you 
that  she  is  expecting  you.  Oh,  why  should 
you  be  at  anybody's  call,  you  beautiful  creat- 
ure !"  Judson  broke  off,  but  in  a  scrupu- 


180  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

lously  soft  voice.  "  Too  bad !  too  bud ! 
Why  should  you  suffer  when  there  are  pro- 
tecting arms  open  to  receive  you  ?" 

He  spread  his  cuffs  abroad  and  even  ap- 
proached her.  Her  eyes,  twice  their  natural 
size,  were  as  full  of  pure  horror  and  specula- 
tion as  Plantagenet's  when  he  saw  uncanny 
aspects  at  night  after  a  misspent  day. 

Judson  was  not  flattered  by  this  regard, 
but  he  thought  it  a  good  time  to  proceed. 

"  "Why  will  you  not  drop  the  burden  and 
let  me  bear  it  for  you  ?  Ah,  you  must !  I 
have  the  intimation — the  intimation  of  love 
—that  you  cannot  bear  the  burden  much 
longer.  Let  it  fall.  Let  it  fall,  sweet  one, 
and  be  buried  in  my  heart." 

Margaret,  still  with  her  wide,  spectre-see- 
ing eyes,  caught  her  breath  in  her  own  pe- 
culiar sob. 

"  There,  there !  I  ask  you  to  make  no 
demonstration  —  not  even  a  word.  I  will 
simply  call  you  mine — and  I  forever  your 
slave.  Why  should  you  be  so  proud  ?  And 
yet  I  wish  you  proud.  Not  a  word !  not  a 
word  !  You  look  very  pale  and — tired.  Let 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  181 

the  day  for  our  marriage  be  as  early  as  pos- 
sible. Farewell,  my  own,  farewell !" 

" '  Pale  and  hungry]  he  was  going  to  say," 
thought  Margaret,  and  reaching  her  room, 
laughed,  and  then  lay  back  in  her  chair 
trembling. 

"  I  am  not  engaged  to  him.  He  is  like  an 
ugly  spell ;  he  enthralled  my  imagination  in 
a  moment  of  weakness  and  faintness.  Oh, 
Isaac !  Isaac !  Isaac !  I  trust  you  !  I  almost 
1 —  But  to  be  taken  up  as  an  incompetent 
by  you,  to  be  cared  for  out  of  pity — never ! 
never!  I  will  marry  Judson  Sprague  first, 
and  show  you  that  there  can  be  glaciers  as 
cold  as  yourself." 


CHAPTER   XII 

"  BUSSED  SAINT  ANTHONY  "  —  Margaret 
heard  Mrs.  O'Ragan  in  the  hall — "  I've  lost 
me  coo!" 

It  was  only  one  phase  of  the  flexible  strain, 
"  Blessed  Saint  Anthony,  I've  lost  me  glass- 
es!" or  "Blessed  Saint  Anthony,  restore  me 
me  choppin'-tray  !"  or  whatever. 

Never  was  a  patron  saint  more  indulgent ; 
and,  as  she  was  going  out,  Margaret  was  not 
surprised  to  hear,  "Thanks  to  blissqd  Saint 
Anthony,  Mrs.  Stuart,  dear,  me  coo's  re- 
stored." 
1  "  And  Plantagenet  ?" 

"  The  b'ys  say,  when  the  coo  shook  him 
off  he  borryd  a  dory  along  shore  and  put  off 
on  a  progriss  to  the  island — the  gall  o'  him !" 

"  People  ought  not  to  lend  a  dory  to  such 
a  young  boy  alone." 

"  Blame  no  one,  dear,  for  none  was  nigh. 


STUART    AND   BAMBOO  183 

He  borryd  it  free  and  aisy,  like  thim  kings 
and  quanes  afore  him,  begorry ;  and  coy  he'll 
be  about  comin'  in  and  lavin'  it  on  the  beach, 
and  then  rin  to  his  granny.  'Tis  a  regular 
thayeter  I'm  livin'  in,  and  not  like  the  mither 
of  a  baptized  family  at  all.  God  help  me !" 

"  Blessed  Saint  Anthony !  blessed  Saint 
Anthony  !"  murmured  Margaret,  on  her  way 
to  the  Herkimers,  "  do  not  let  me  lose  my 
heart !  One  can  bear  all  things  if  one  does 
not  lose  one's  heart.  A  Christian  has  no  af- 
finity for  a  Jew,  though  sometimes — now— 
she  bit  her  lip  as  warmly  as  though  there 
had  been  any  one  near  to  see  her  confusion — 
"it  does  comfort  me  that  he  is  always  'so 
anxious  about  me ' — '  so  anxious  about  me ' !" 

As  for  Plantagenet,  she  felt  a  bit  of  family 
pride  in  the  dauntless  way  he  was  conserving 
the  talents  of  the  primitive  aristocracy — since 
Mrs.  Shaughnessy  had  said,  "  By  sea  or  land 
he  would  come  home  safe  to  his  supper  " ;  for 
Margaret  had  another  wayward  impulse — to 
feel  that  the  light  would  go  out  of  her  life  if 
she  should  lose  Plantagenet. 

When,  at  evening,  the  "tide  served,"  she 


184  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

preceded  the  Herkimers — with  whom  she  was 
to  take  the  promised  sail  to  the  island  to  see 
Stack — in  a  stroll  to  the  beach. 

But  there  was  no  sail  to  the  island  that 
night.  Stack  was  coming  home.  He  had 
stay  ed  loyally  and  un  complain  in  gly;  but  now 
he  had  a  good  excuse,  and  he  was  coming 
home.  In  the  distance  Margaret  saw  him, 
and  he  was  holding  a  tawny  head  that  she 
knew  above  the  waves. 

Plantagenet's  "borrowed"  craft,  ill -ma- 
noeuvred in  the  mounting  sea,  had  upset  him 
as  he  pursued  his  homeward  trip.  Stack, 
looking  wistfully  across,  had  seen  the  boy 
clinging  to  the  boat  and  drifting  outward, 
and  had  himself,  with  the  last  swift  exertion 
of  his  old  age,  organized  a  rescue.  He  was 
coming  home  with  the  hero  of  many  advent- 
ures, himself  to  be  a  sublimated  hero  at  last. 

Margaret  looked  wildly  about  her.  She 
saw  Helen  coming  down  the  lane  in  advance 
of  her  father  and  mother,  and  ran  to  her. 
"  Plantagenet  is  drowned !"  she  said,  her  face 
perfectly  colorless,  "and  Stack  is  bringing 
him  home !  Run — run  for  Isaac !" 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  185 

"  Isaac  ?" 

"Isaac  Gilchrist!  He  can  save  him,  if 
there  is  any  hope !  Oh,  Helen,  run  !" 

"Where?" 

"  In/the  place  where  I  live !  Take  the  short 
cut  over  the  cliffs !  He  may  be  nearer ! — he 
may  be  on  the  road !  He  is  usually  coming 
home  at  this  hour !  Oh,  run  !  run  !" 

"  Go  meet  my  father !  He  can  save  them 
in  the  boat  if  Stack  gives  out !"  cried  Helen, 
reasonably,  and  then  ran  as  she  was  bid. 

"  Plantagenet  is  dead  !"  gasped  Margaret, 
meeting  the  captain.  "  Stack  is  bringing  him 
home — the  boat !" 

But  before  the  captain  had  reached  the  beach 
and  could  board  his  dory,  Stack,  bravely,  des- 
perately swimming,  was  too  near  for  that  aid  ; 
so  he  did  it  all  himself.  He  brought  Plan- 
tagenet in,  and  he  himself  lay  panting  on  the 
beach. 

"  Yes,  the  boy's  gone,  I'm  afraid,"  said  the 
captain,  dolefully  shaking  his  head  ;  "  but  I 
might  try." 

But  Margaret  had  taken  the  drowned  body 
in  her  arms,  sheltering  it  almost  fiercely.  She 


186  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

had  seen  the  lids  close  over  too  many  be- 
loved eyes.  In  extremities  she  had  never, 
now,  any  hope  of  life ;  so  she  held  the  limp 
form  when  Isaac  came  bounding  to  them 
over  the  cliffs. 

"  Give  him  to  me !"  he  said.  Margaret 
shook  her  head,  the  tears  running  piteously 
down  her  cheeks  and  dropping  on  Plantag- 
enet's  streaming  curls. 

With  gentlest  force  Isaac  loosened  the  boy 
from  her  grasp,  and,  with  swift  action,  and 
orders  to  those  not  too  despairing  to  assist 
him,  in  no  long  time  he  had  the  briny  deep 
pumped  out  of  Plantagenet  and  the  breath 
of  life  faintly  heaving  in  him  again. 

"  Sure  as  I'm  a  sinner  the  little  devil's 
breathin' !"  cried  the  captain,  in  unbelieving 
joy,  while  Margaret's  face  went  from  pallor 
to  an  amazing  rose  color. 

"  Let  us  remember,  captain,"  his  lady  ad- 
jured him,  "that  we've  just  been  standin'  on 
the  brink  of  eternity." 

"  I  supposed  the  boy'd  pitched  over,"  re- 
sponded the  captain,  cheerfully.  "If  it 
hadn't  been  for  that — Jew?" — he  indicated 


STUART    AND    BAMBOO  187 

the  place  where  Isaac  was  still  leaning  over 
Plantagenet. 

"  Yes,"  said  Margaret,  and  very  proudly. 
Jew  or  Christian,  it  was  sufficient  to  her 
mind  to  have  a  knight  who  could  bring  the 
dead  to  life. 

No  one  had  much  noticed  the  old  dog, 
Stack,  nor  had  he  thought  of  his  own  condi- 
tion, gazing  with  all  his  heart  at  the  efforts 
to  restore  this  last  trophy  of  his  magnanim- 
ity and  prowess.  But  now  it  was  evident 
that  it  was  Stack,  and  not  Plantagenet,  who 
was  dying. 

When  the  captain  saw  this  he  went  and 
stood  over  him  with  a  pale  face,  and  his  lady 
took  her  place  in  unreproachful  sympathy 
at  his  side.  But  Stack's  solemn  eyes  were 
turned  full  upon  Margaret,  and  with  a  sharp 
pang  of  remorse  and  love  she  went  over  and 
encircled  his  wet,  shaggy  neck  with  her  arms. 

Then  came  the  last  conversation  they  ever 
had  together,  and  it  was  a  brief  one — an  in- 
audible but  clearly  understood  language  of 
the  eyes. 

"  I  am  very  sorry  for  you,"  said  Stack, 


188  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

utterly  unselfish  to  the  last ;  "  it  is  hard  for 
you  to  see  me  die." 

At  this  Margaret  gave  him  a  look  which 
opened  without  further  pain  the  ascending 
gates  of  life  to  him.  For,  as  she  pressed  her 
sweet  face  against  his,  already  cold,  the  strug- 
gle was  over. 

"  I  wish  you  to  come  with  me,  if  you  will " 
—she  heard  Isaac's  kind  voice.  "  I  am  go- 
ing to  take  the  boy  home.  Come !" 

She  rose  vaguely  but  obediently.  With 
Plantagenet  in  his  arms,  and  Margaret  at  his 
side,  it  was  a  strangely  assorted,  remarkable- 
looking  company  that  started  up  the  cliff 
path  home. 

Now  that  the  stray  lamb's  arms  hung  so 
limp  over  Isaac's  shoulder,  Margaret  saw 
how  the  boy  had  grown  of  late,  and  that  his 
jacket  and  trousers,  though  never  so  gener- 
ously supplemented  with  fortunate  bits  of 
fabric,  impartial  in  color  and  design,  had 
still  been  unable  to  keep  pace  with  the  swift 
evolutions  of  time. 

Moreover,  Isaac,  though  so  strong,  was  of 
slender  build,  and  the  resistless  members  of 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  189 

this  lost  one  of  the  flock  seemed  to  surround 
him,  crayfish-like.  And  in  this  manner  he 
whom  Plantagenet  had  so  often  and  wilfully 
called  "  Jerusalem,"  bore  the  Catholic  prince 
of  the  house  of  Stuart  very  carefully  and 
tenderly  up  the  steeps. 

The  rescued  one  himself,  though  so  weak, 
was  proud  —  nothing  less.  To  have  been 
overturned  in  a  dory  betwixt  shores,  to 
have  been  in  deathly  peril,  and  to  have 
been  towed  ashore  by  a  dog — it  was  a  con- 
summation of  bliss  that  sat  nobly  on  his 
features. 

"  Granny !"  he  demanded,  faintly,  and 
Margaret  and  Isaac  nodded. 

This  was  the  evening  hour  when  the  free^ 
born  of  the  tenements  rallied  one  another 
from  their  front  door-steps.  The  trio  crept 
softly  up  the  dark  backstairs. 

"What  have  they  been  doin'  to  ye,  my 
lamb  ?"  cried  Granny. 

"A  wicked  boat  overturned  him,"  said 
Isaac,  without  perceptible  sarcasm  ;  "  a  noble 
dog  saved  him." 

"  God  rest  his  so\vl!"  said  Granny,  fervent- 


190  STUART    AND    BAMBOO 

ly,  irrespective  of  race  or  kind,  and  raised 
her  eyes  and  crossed  herself. 

"Have  you  just  a  bit  of  beef,  Agnes?" 
said  Margaret,  appearing  at  that  matron's 
door.  "  I  happen  to  be  out,  and  I  need  it  at 
once  for  some  one  who  is  ill." 

It  was  given  eagerly. 

"  And  will  3rou  come  and  help  me  make  it 
into  beef-tea,  Agnes  ?" 

"We  shall  mek  it  right  here  upon  my 
keetchen  fire.  Yours,  maybe,  iss  gone  out." 

It  was  out,  indeed,  and  Margaret  was  well 
content  not  to  have  the  poverty  of  her  larder 
revealed.  In  the  general  excitement  Mrs. 
Herkimer  had  not  paid  her  for  the  few  hours 
of  chirking  she  had  been  able  to  render  that 
day.  She  had  given  her  last  dollar  for  rent, 
and  her  home  meals  were  consisting  exclu- 
sively of  toast  from  accumulated  fragments 
of  bread.  But  she  went  up  the  stairs  happy 
with  her  steaming  bowl  of  tea. 

"  Oh,  you  are  a  genius  !"  said  Isaac. 

lie  knew  the  moment  he  looked  at  it  that 
it  was  a  concoction  of  Agnes's  own,  and  Mar- 
garet was  conscious  that  he  knew,  but  his 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  191 

commendation  was  so  vivid  and  tender  she 
accepted  it  with  a  simply  reflected  triumph 
in  her  tired,  wide  e\res. 

Isaac  had  Plantagenet  bathed  and  in  clean, 
dry  clothes,  lying  on  his  granny's  lounge,  sip- 
ping "  cordial." 

Margaret  had  never  seen  her  young  rela- 
tive clean  and  thoroughly  brushed  before. 
His  recent  experiences  had  made  his  high- 
born features  eminently  pale,  and  she  stood 
gazing  at  him — herself  thin  and  toast-fed — 
in  pleased  surprise. 

"  There !  Isik,  be  they  mother  and  child, 
or  be  they  not  ?" 

Isaac  smiled.  "They  are  both  of  your  own 
superb  family,  mother." 

"  And  have  you  taken  her  to  the  priest  yet, 
Isik?" 

"  Not  yet,  mother." 

"But  ye  will?" 

"  Oh,  surely  ;  all  in  good  time,  mother." 

Margaret  was  giving  Plantagenet  his  tea, 
with  her  back  happily  turned  to  this  dia- 
logue. The  boy  saw  her  face  go  from  red 
to  white  and  white  to  red. 


192  STUART    AND    BAMBOO 

"  Jerusalem's  a  brick,"  he  whispered,  tears 
in  the  desolate  beauty  of  his  eyes.  "  I'm  too 
young.  You — you  can  have  him." 

"  Thank  you,  dear,"  said  Margaret,  coldly, 
all  her  dignity  returning  to  her. 

When  she  went  out  Isaac  followed  her. 

"  Now  he  will  propose  to  me,"  she 
thought,  "  in  order  to  feed  me !  And  I 
must  refuse  him."  But  her  heart  beat  vio- 
lently. 

Isaac,  however,  reflected  none  of  her  agi- 
tation as  he  walked  methodically  down  the 
stairs  at  her  side. 

"  What  an  engaging,  haunting  face  that 
little  reprobate  up  there  has,"  he  said. 

"  He  is  charming,  now  that  he  is  bathed," 
said  Margaret,  gladly. 

"  We  must  try  to  do  something  for  him," 
continued  Isaac.  "  He  is  wonderfully  bright 
for  his  station,  and  he  certainly  has  the  lion- 
heart  of  the  race  he  counts  his  descent  from. 
He  has  more  life  than  he  knows  what  to  do 
with,  and  he  is  devoted  to  you.  You  could 
shape  his  energies.  We  must  give  him  a 
chance." 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  193 

Margaret's  heart  stood  still.  "  "We  !  We ! 
We !"  swam  in  her  brain. 

But  Isaac  took  her  hand  in  parting,  with 
unbroken  calm.  "  I  shall  be  glad  when  there 
is  not  so  much  to  try  you,"  he  said.  "  I  think 
of  you  constantly.  Eemember  that  I  am  al- 
ways thinking  of  you,  and  always  near." 

"  It  is  adorable  of  him  not  to  compel  me 
to  refuse  him  to-night,"  said  Margaret,  in 
her  own  room.  "  I  think  it  would  almost 
have  broken  my  heart  to  have  to  refuse  him 
to-night." 

She  had  deliberately  put  pen,  paper,  and 
ink  before  her,  and  the  object  of  her  long- 
suspended  epistolary  efforts  was  to  write 
Judson  Sprague. 

"  If  Stack — if  a  dog — can  give  his  life  la- 
boriously and  painfully  in  a  good  cause,  I 
think  I  can  starve  on  toast  by  cheerful  de- 
grees rather  than  sell  myself,  simply  to  be 
supported  in  ease  by  a  man  I  can  hardly 
bear  in  my  sight." 

So  she  wrote : 

"  DEAR  MR.  SPRAGUE, — I  am  confident  that  you  have 
deceived  yourself  in  some  inferences  which  you  seemed 


194  STUART    AND    BAMBOO 

to  draw  regarding  my  sentiments  towards  you ;  and  I 
am  to  blame  that,  in  a  moment  of  mental  anxiety  and 
bewilderment,  I  did  not  tell  you  frankly  the  real  con- 
viction of  my  heart,  that  I  do  not  care  for  you  and  that 
I  can  never  marry  you. 

"Very  gratefully  and  sincerely, 

"MARGARET  STUART." 


CHAPTER  XIII 

BUT  Judson  Sprague  had  determined  to 
marry  Margaret  Stuart,  and  he  chose  to  con- 
strue what  he  had  imputed  as  a  hopeful  sign 
of  concession  on  her  part  into  full  authority 
to  execute  his  plans.  A  little  bird  in  the 
air  had  told  him  that  she  entertained  a 
friendly  acquaintance  with  the  Jew,  and 
he  resolved  to  nip  any  possible  fancy  of 
that  sort  discreetly  and  promptly  in  the 
bud. 

Isaac  had  a  bit  of  an  office  in  the  city, 
where  he  sat  when  it  pleased  him ;  and  the 
magnates  of  the  town,  in  judicious  awe  of 
the  golden  calf,  though  a  closeted  and  unas- 
suming one,  knew  that  office  well. 

So  Isaac  was  not  surprised  when  Judson 
Sprague  entered,  smiling  and  gracious. 

"  Ah,  you  could  buy  us  all  out,  Mr.  Gil- 
christ,  and  you  sit  here  as  demurely  as 


196  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

though  you  and  we  did  not  know  it!     Ah, 
too  bad  of  you !  too  bad !" 

"I  have  no  desire  to  buy  you  out,  Mr. 
Sprague."  Isaac  practised  carelessly  with  a 
pencil  on  a  scrap  of  paper  at  his  side. 

"  No,  there   is   nothing   of   the   usual  — 
nothing   of  the   pawnbroker   about  you  — 
nothing  of  the  pawnbroker.     We  all  know 
that." 

The  Jew's  dark  eyes  regarded  the  other 
too  gravely  for  reproach. 

"Now  I,"  continued  Judson  Sprague,  and 
that  gayly,  "  though  an  older  man — I  have 
more  of  the  fever,  the  joy,  the  animus  of 
existence.  Take  warning,  Mr.  Gilchrist,  and 
keep  in  the  safe  seclusion  of  the  unemotion- 
al. It  is  a  better  investment  in  a  pecuniary 
sense — ha !  ha ! — a  better  investment.  Still, 
I  am  content — I  am  content." 

A  shade  of  impatience  passed  over  Isaac's 
face,  still  absently  drawing  with  his  pencil. 

"But  I  came  here  on  business,  Mr.  Gil- 
christ. In  order,  however,  that  I  may  do 
justice  to  my  errand,  and  that  you  may  un- 
derstand why  I  wish  to  sell  certain  valuable 


STUART    AND    BAMBOO  197 

properties,  I  will  explain,  if  you  will  allow 
me." 

"  Yes." 

"  I  take,  perhaps,  a  boyish  pleasure  in  do- 
ing so.  I  am  supremely  happy.  I  am  go- 
ing to  marry  a  most  charming  woman.  I 
think  perhaps  you  have  heard  of  her — Mrs. 
Stuart — ah,  Mrs.  Margaret  Stuart,  ah !" 

"  Yes." 

Judson  Sprague  wondered  if  the  Jew  was 
engaged  in  pencilling  some  new  Levitical 
law,  so  absolutely  calm  was  his  face. 

"  I  propose,  for  her  sake — she  is  not  strong 
— to  break  up  my  humdrum  existence  here 
for  a  while,  to  spend  a  couple  of  years  in 
travel  and  residence  abroad." 

"Well?" 

"  My  tenement  property,  Mr.  Gilchrist, 
particularly  my  houses  on  Cliff  Street,  I  have 
always  found  very  remunerative.  But  that 
is  when  the  owner  is  by  to  regulate,  as  far 
as  possible,  the  contingent  expenses,  to  mod- 
ify and  supervise  all  demands  made  upon 
him,  and  to  look  strictly  after  his  own  rents. 
Ah,  you  understand." 


198  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

"Well?" 

"  I  desire,  therefore,  under  the  flattering 
circumstances  before  alluded  to,  to  sell  this 
property — to  get  it  off  my  hands,  good  gold 
though  it  is.  Conditions  change  values. 
Remember,  I  do  not  regret  the  conditions — 
ha!  ha!" 

Isaac's  face  looked  drawn.  He  made  no 
reply. 

"  I  come  to  you  because,  while  some  of 
us  are  reputed  to  be  wealthy  men,  and 
are  indeed,  I  trust,  wealthy  men,  you — ah, 
too  bad  of  you!  but  it  is  your  way — have 
come,  nevertheless,  to  control  the  literal 
finance  of  our  banks,  as  it  were  —  ha !  ha ! 
if  I  may  so  speak.  And  yet  you  live 
the  life  of  a  hermit.  We  have  asked  you 
in  vain  to  dine  with  us.  Ah,  well,  in  a 
pecuniary  sense,  doubtless,  it  is  wisdom — it 
is  wisdom." 

Isaac  had  taken  a  fresh  piece  of  paper, 
upon  which  he  drew  some  slight  plans. 

"  Those  are  the  houses  you  wish  to  sell  ?" 

"  Quite  right — quite  right." 

Isaac,  taking  back  the  paper,  made  some 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  199 

computations,  and  handed  it  again  to  Jud- 
son  Sprague. 

"  I  will  give  you  so  much.  I  have  placed 
the  amount  there — individually  and  collec- 
tively." 

"  Ah,  but,  Mr.  Gilchrist,  you  are  jesting — 
you  are  jesting !  Keally  you  are  taking  ad- 
vantage of  my  present  disposition  to  sell." 

"It  is  quite  optional  with  you  whether 
you  will  take  it  or  not.  It  is  my  offer  in 
price.  I  shall  make  no  other." 

"Ah,  ah!"  The  sum  was  a  little  more 
than  Judson  had  determined  to  take  at  the 
lowest.  A  glance  at  Isaac's  face  quieted  a 
little  his  voluble  tongue,  and  convinced  him 
besides  that,  if  he  let  this  opportunity  slip, 
he  would  have  no  other. 

"Well— well— very  well.  So  be  it.  Shall 
we  step  in  next  door  and  have  the  papers 
drawn  ?" 

When  Isaac  returned  to  his  office,  he  locked 
the  door,  drew  the  shades  down  over  the 
windows,  and  shut  out  all  the  light  from  his 
eyes  with  his  long,  thin  hands. 

"  If  that  be  so,"  he  said,  at  last,  "  she  needs 


200  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

a  friend  more  than  ever.  If  I  could  have 
had  time  to  win  her  trust  and  love !  God 
of  my  fathers!  God  of  my  fathers!" — his 
heart  clung  desperately  and  with  unrea- 
soning simplicity,  in  this  hour,  to  the  power 
of  a  mighty  tradition — "  God  of  my  fathers, 
turn  her  heart  to  me!  I  will  be  true  to 
her!" 


CHAPTER    XIV 

AND  instead  of  an  acceptance  of  her  re- 
fusal came  a  magniloquent  box  of  flowers 
from  Margaret's  unblushing  suitor.  She  ate 
her  crusts  amid  the  odor  of  the  choicest 
exotics. 

And  the  Jew  was  sad  when  by  chance 
she  met  him.  "  He  is  in  love  with  some 
one,"  thought  Margaret,  "  and  he  is  sorry 
for  me."  And  so  she  swept  by  distantly,  her 
head  neither  more  nor  less  proudly  carried 
than  ever. 

"It  is  evident  she  has  made  up  her  mind 
to  marry  him,"  thought  Isaac.  "  Perhaps 
she  cares  for  him !  I  am  a  Jew — he  is  a 
Christian."  He  laughed,  sombrely,  and  grew 
into  the  habit  of  pacing  the  beach  a  great 
deal  with  his  hat  pulled  low  over  his  eyes. 

Plantagenet,  mainly  occupied  in  wearing 
out  the  new  clothes  Isaac  had  given  him, 


202  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

sometimes  watched  him  wistfully.  "  They're 
all  alike,  all  them  Sen'  Marie  Stuarts,"  he 
pondered.  "  It  takes  a  whole  rigimunt,  cav- 
ulry  and  harkerbusses,  swingin'  around  the 
cornder,  to  fetch  'em.  /  could  git  her,  if  I 
was  old  enough.  He  don't  know  how — he 
talked  gamey  up  in  Granny's  room,  but 
suthin's  knocked  him  over.  Psh !  He  wants 
to  read  up  a  little." 

Isaac  saw  the  royal,  but,  on  the  whole, 
compassionate,  disdain  on  Plantagenet's  feat- 
ures. 

"Would  you  like  to  go  away  to  school, 
Plantagenet  ?  To  a  real  military  school,  and 
wear  a  handsome  uniform,  and  study  like  a 
brave  boy — would  you  ?" 

"  No,  sir,  I  wouldn't.  I've  got  some  pretty 
funny  beats  around  here,  and  I've  got  my 
own  *  Pluck  and  Liver  Kore.'  r 

"But  would  you  go  if  Mrs.  Stuart  asked 
you?" 

"  Not  if  she  asked  me ;  but  if  she  cried, 
I'd  have  to !" 

"  Does  she  ever  cry,  Plantagenet  ?" 

"  Yes,  sir,  she  does  cry." 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  203 

"  Oh,  I  thought  she  was  one  of  the  kind 
that  never  cried  !"  Isaac  tried  to  be  scoffing. 

"  See  here !"  said  Plantagenet ;  "  onct,  nex' 
to  me,  you  had  the  most  sand  o'  anybody  in 
Yarmouth,  you  had !" 

"Well?" 

"  If  you  Avant  to  ketch  a  Stuart,  you  don't 
want  to  filter  out  on  sand !" 

Isaac's  gloomy  smile  encouraged  his  Cath- 
olic tutor. 

"  Ah,  but  if  she  is  going  to  marry  some- 
body else,  Plantagenet  ?" 

"Who?" 

"  Mr.  Judson  Sprague,  for  instance." 

"  That  roun'-toed>  snifflin'  ol'  jelly-tumbler ! 
No,  sir." 

"  But  he  is  rich,  you  know." 

"  No,  sir ;  she  won't  do  it." 

"  Why,  Plantagenet  ?" 

"  I  won't  let  her !" 

"  You  must  feel  very  smart,  indeed,  to  say 
that." 

"  I  be  smart.  I'm  smart  as  the  hull  city 
o'  Yarmouth!"  Plantagenet  put  his  new 
and  larger  "II.M.S.  Mohawk"  over  one  ear 


204  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

and  spat  out  a  little  licorice  as  a  shining 
substitute  for  the  dignity  of  tobacco.  "  Set 

o  •/ 

yer  mind  easy.  I  won't  let  her — not  if  I 
come  into  church  with  my  kore  and  bust  the 
perceedin's — no,  sir !" 

"  And  would  you  let  her  marry  me  ?" 

Plantagenet  wilted,  his  cap  sought  a  nat- 
ural level,  his  eyes  became  the  solemn  deso- 
lations of  a  country  loved  and  lost. 

"  Yep,"  he  said ;  but  with  the  words  he 
turned  abruptly  and  took  to  his  heels. 

Margaret  closed  her  inner  door  upon  the 
flowers — they  were  wearily  sweet.  She  had 
felt  an  increasing  weakness  for  days — and 
crusts  are  not  sustaining.  Languidly  she  let 
the  intention  of  walking  to  the  Herkimers, 
of  bringing  in  her  clothes  from  the  line — 
all  other  actual  intentions  —  slip  from  her 
mind. 

"He  would  then  be  free  from  his  self-im- 
posed notion  of  loyalty,  to  marry  whom  he 
liked.  If  I  marry  Judson  Sprague,  it  will 
solve  all  difficulties.  It  may  be  too  late  al- 
ready to  get  sufficiently  nourished.  I  do  not 
feel  that  I  shall  ever  be  hungry  again." 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  205 

She  laughed  with  a  fine  scorn,  but  fever- 
ishly, drew  the  low  chair  she  was  sitting  in 
to  the  bed,  and  laid  her  head  down  there. 

And  that,  for  some  long  weeks,  was  the 
last  of  Margaret's  perplexed  and  weary 
scheming. 

Towards  nightfall  of  that  day  Helen  came 
as  a  deputation  of  inquiry  from  her  mother, 
as  well  as  from  a  strong  personal  intuition  of 
trouble,  and  she  found  Margaret  in  the  de- 
lirium of  a  fever. 

"  My  trunks  are  all  packed,"  said  the  lady. 
"  I  sail  for  England  to-night — the  climate  is 
so  moist  and  cool — cool — and  the  hedges — 
the  hedges — I  have  been  lying  down  all  day 
in  preparation,  you  see,  Helen — the  cool 
climate — cool — and  the  hedges — 

"  I  see,"  said  Helen,  at  once,  for  in  sor- 
row lay  this  young  woman's  strength,  and  a 
smile  more  cheerful  than  usual  came  to  her 
prematurely  grave  face.  "  I  understand  it 
all.  You  have  nothing  to  do  now  but  to 
rest." 

She  went  out  and  despatched  one  messen- 
ger for  a  doctor,  another  to  her  mother,  say- 


206  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

ing  she  should  not  be  home  that  night,  and 
requesting  a  nursing-gown  and  certain  arti- 
cles to  be  sent  to  her. 

The  pessimism  of  Mrs.  Herkimer's  spirit 
may  be  imagined.  "  Well,  I'm  to  lose  all ! 
Such  fevers  are  usually  ketchin'.  Helen  was 
born  in  depression,  and  now  she  has  found 
a  way  to  go  down  the  dark  valley.  Well, 
well." 

"  For  God's  sake,"  said  the  captain, "  brace 
up !  Helen's  used  to  sickness.  She's  one  o' 
these  'ere  nateral-born  Sisters  o'  Charity. 
She's  been  into  everything,  and  she's  come 
out  all  right." 

"  There's  always  a  last  time,  Captain  Her- 
kimer,  and  a  last  straw,  and  it  is  fittin',  as  a 
last  straw,  that  the  husband  of  my  youth 
should  go  over  to  Rome !" 

"  Go  over  to  thunder !"  cried  the  captain. 
"  Who  the  devil,  then,  's  the  husband  o'  your 
old  age?"  And  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  for 
his  heart  was  heavy  for  his  only  child,  he 
walked  down  towards  his  boat. 

He  met  Judson  Sprague  on  the  high- 
way. "  Ah,  is  our  Mrs.  Stuart  with  you 


STDAKT   AND   BAMBOO  207 

this  evening,  captain,  or  has  she  gone 
home?" 

The  oily  manner  irritated  the  captain. 
"  She's  got  a  bad  fever,"  said  he,  brusquely, 
and  passed  on. 

"  Ah,  too  bad  !  too  bad !"  said  Judson 
Sprague  to  the  listening  atmosphere,  and 
reddened  with  chagrin  and  annoyance.  The 
illness  of  a  helpmate,  of  which  he  had  had 
considerable  experience,  was  disagreeable  to 
him.  Margaret  pale  and  languid  was  inter- 
esting to  him.  Margaret  suffering  with  a 
fever  was  an  object,  for  his  own  peace  of 
mind,  temporarily  to  be  suspended  from  his 
affections.  "  She  is,  after  all,  a  woman  of 
vigorous  constitution.  Let  us  hope  she  will 
soon  recover — soon  recover,"  he  murmured, 
and  retraced  his  steps  homeward. 

Overhauling  his  dory  on  the  beach,  the 
captain  saw  the  Jew  strolling  near  by  in 
the  moonlight.  He  had  admired  this  expo- 
nent of  an  ostracized  faith  for  his  skill  in 
Plantagenet's  case,  and  he  beckoned  to  him. 

"  Would  ye  like  to  go  out  to  my  boat  and 
take  a  sail  with  me  ?  The  tide's  servin'." 


208  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

"Thank  you,  yes,"  said  the  Jew,  pleas- 
antly. 

"I'm  all  upset  to-night,"  owned  the  cap- 
tain, with  instant  confidence  in  the  others 
frank  eyes.  "  Mrs.  Stuart,  up  there,  's  in  a 
bad  way  with  a  fever,  and  my  Helen's  nursin' 
of  her." 

"  I  won't  go  for  the  sail,  thank  you,"  said 
Isaac.  The  captain  wondered  if  some  whiter 
light  from  the  moon  had  fallen  on  his  face. 
"  I  will  go  up  to  the  house ;  there  may  be 
something  I  can  do." 

Helen  answered  his  knock,  speaking  with 
him  in  the  hall. 

"  I  thank  God  you  are  with  her,  Miss  Her- 
kimer,"  he  said. 

The  girl  read  his  face,  trusted  him,  and, 
above  all,  pitied  him. 

"  You  can  pull  her  through !  You  can 
save  her!  Is  she  suffering?  Is  she  very 
ill?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Helen,  to  this  last  clause,  but 
with  a  quiet  strength  inspired  for  the  emer- 
gency. 

"  When — when — "  said  the  Jew — "  when 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  209 

Mrs.  Stuart  was  well  she  entrusted  this 
amount  to  me  for  safe -keeping.  She  had 
business  confidence  in  me."  He  thrust  a  roll 
of  bank-notes  into  Helen's  hands.  "It  is 
possible  she  may  need  them  now.  She- 
she  had  no  other  confidence  in  me,  though 
I  worship  her,"  said  he,  as  if  to  a  safe  con- 
fessor in  the  presence  of  an  awful  emer- 
gency. "God  knows,  if  I  could  send  her 
out  in  health  and  peace,  and  myself  bear 
her  illness,  though  to  die,  I  would  do  it !  I 
hoped — but  I  seemed  always  to  offend  her. 
I  have  been  much  alone.  I  have  not  learned 
the  ways  of  other  men.  You  must  pardon 
me,  but  she  had  confidence  in  my  rectitude. 
The  amount  is  hers.  She  should  have  every- 
thing done  for  her — physicians  —  a  nurse  to 
relieve  yourself." 

Helen,  with  her  steady  eyes,  divined  that 
the  Jew,  in  this  instance,  might  possibly  be 
a  Jesuit  of  the  Jesuits.  But  his  face  was  a 
book  of  pathos,  and  she  did  not  thwart  him. 

"  I  am  glad  that  she  has  this.  It  shall 
be  used  for  her,  and  I  will  myself  keep  the 
account." 

14 


210  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

"I  must  not  detain  you."  But  Isaac's 
hand  trembled  on  the  baluster  with  an  un- 
finished appeal. 

"  Call  me  by  knocking  at  this  outer  door 
whenever  you  like,"  said  this  girl  of  sad  in- 
tuitions. "  I  will  come  as  often  as  you  de- 
sire, to  tell  you  how  she  is." 

"  God  bless  you !"  said  Isaac ;  and  then 
this  legitimate  offspring  of  an  unbelieving 
and  acquisitive  race  went  up  to  Granny's 
room  and  laid  his  head  in  her  lap  and  cried. 
Plantagenet  and  she  were  saying  their  pray- 
ers on  a  string  of  beads.  The  beads  dangled 
in  Isaac's  black  locks. 

"  There  !"  said  Granny,  gently,  at  the  end, 
with  a  face  calm  as  if  earthly  trouble  had 
never  touched  her  senses  ;  "  all  is  well !" 

But  Mildred  St.  Thomas's  beads  hung 
gaudily  on  her  beautiful  neck,  and  were  not 
designed  for  prayer.  She,  too,  came,  and 
Helen  went  out  to  her. 

"  I  have  come  to  nurse  Mrs.  Stuart,"  said 
Mildred,  with  a  rather  forced  boldness  in  her 
impressive  presence  as  she  confronted  her 
lover's  unappreciated  fiancee. 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  211 

If  Helen  had  latterly  learned  something 
of  the  state  of  affairs,  if  she  knew  that  the 
splendid  beauty  before  her  was  implicated 
with  Jeffrey,  she  still  showed  no  bitterness 
either  in  her  face  or  voice,  and  Mildred  was 
stormily  conscious  of  her  own  false  position. 

"  If  you  care  for  Mrs.  Stuart,  if  you  wish 
her  to  live,  you  will  not  disturb  her  now," 
said  Helen. 

"  I— I  knew  her  first." 

"  Later  on,  perhaps,  you  can  help  us — '  Ag- 
nes,' as  Mrs.  Stuart  calls  her,  and  me.  Later, 
perhaps,  you  can  help  us." 

"  Is  she  so  dangerous  ?" 

"  She  is  very  ill." 

Mildred's  hand  trembled  in  the  place  where 
Isaac's  had  been.  She  knew  persuasion  or 
rebellion  were  useless.  She  went  out  reck- 
lessly, and  she  prayed  her  prayer  —  an  im- 
pious prayer ;  but  she  was  crude  in  the  ef- 
fort, and  at  least  it  was  a  beginning. 

"O  God,"  said  Mildred — popularly  known 
as  Duds  Sen'  Tammy — "  if  you  will  save  her 
to  be  in  health  again,  I  will  join  any  church 
that  will  take  me  in — and  live  up  to  it!  I 


212  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

will!  I  don't  break  ray  word  —  you  know 
that !  If  not —  "  the  stormy  young  woman 
ground  her  teeth  as  in  conclusion. 

And  just  at  this  point  the  familiar  strains 
of  the  Salvation  Army  suddenly  arrested  her 
on  the  street.  Hundreds  of  times  she  had 
heard  them  without  hearing  them,  and  hun- 
dreds of  times,  in  company  with  Jeffrey,  or 
some  other  congenial  spirit,  she  had  mocked 
their  songs  or  ridiculed  their  persuasions  and 
their  bonnets. 

"Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea, 
***** 

O  Lamb  of  God,  I  come  !    I  come !" 

"  Just  as  I  am !"  Now  Mildred  was  wait- 
ing for  something — something  imperative — 
something  without  which— 

"Just  as  I  am!"  sang  the  trumpet,  now 
without  aid  of  human  voice.  "  Just  as  I 
am!  Just  as  I  am!"  It  filled  and  flooded 
her  turbulent  brain. 

It  did  not  come  with  any  sense  of  awak- 
ened spiritual  perceptions  to  Duds  Sen'  Tam- 
my. It  was  a  wonder  whereat  she  gasped— 


STUART    AND    BAMBOO  213 

the  sudden  opening  of  a  ne\v  vista  on  life's 
common  highway,  awesome,  almost  strange- 
ly lovely,  with  undreamed-of  possibilities. 

It  was  a  natural  flood  that  laved  her — a 
voice  piercing  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other 
voices ;  and  she  turned  unresistingly  and  fol- 
lowed the  group  into  their  dingy  barracks. 


CHAPTER  XV 

"  HERE,  Plontogonet !  Go  down  to  Father 
Walsh  wid  this  candle  and  git  it  blissed,  till 
I  burn  it  for  the  hilth — God  grant  it ! — o?  the 
dear  one  that's  ill.  Now,  I  want  no  progris- 
sions  by  the  way.  Mind  ye  that !" 

There  was  no  danger.  It  was  an  errand 
grateful  to  the  soul  of  Plantagenet.  He  car- 
ried the  candle  there  and  back  awesomely  in 
his  soiled,  iniquitous  hands. 

Moral  peace  now  settled  upon  Mrs.  O'Ra- 
gan,  though  her  heart  was  perturbed  in  many 
ways. 

"  Sure  there  be  fayvers  that  be  light  and 
some  that  be  hard,  Mrs.  Shaughnessy !"  she 
moaned,  with  doleful  suggestion. 

"  Yis,  Mrs.  O'Ragan.  There's  a  bit  of  a 
hay-fayver,  for  insthance,  that's  little  harm 
at  all." 

"  Harm,  was  ye  savin'  ?     'Tis  glad  I'd  be 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  215 

to  suffer  it.  Whin  we  resided  in  the  coun- 
thry,  six  miles  beyant,  I  kipt  sivinty  hens 
and  of  coos  a  dizzen  and  one.  Holy  Saint 
Father  in  heaven  knows  it !" 

"  I  admire  yer  aristhocracy,  Mrs.  O'Ragan, 
but  what  has  that  to  do  wid  yer  hay-fay  ver  ?" 

"Viry  much,  indade,  Mrs.  Shaughnessy. 
Hay  was  hay  there,  and  no  say-wind  a-blas- 
thin'  it.  'Tis  little  hay  one  sees  here,  grane 
or  dry." 

"True  for  ye,  and  the  weather  grows 
blightin'.  I  seen  O'Ragan's  shirts  ye  hung 
out  yistherday  is  as  sthiff  as  a  ghost,  as 
though  niver  a  bit  o'  wather  had  been  wrung 
out  o'  thim." 

"  Indade,  Kate  Shaughnessy !  Look  to  your 
own  drhawers — is  flantin'  on  the  line  wid  the 
icicles  to  thim  a  yard  long !" 

"Whish!  now—" 

Mrs.  O'Ragan  drew  her  cable. 

T\vo  sleek  individuals  were  coming  up  the 
walk.  "  We  come  from  the  Board  of  Health, 
ladies ;  merely  a  little  formality." 

Mrs.  O'Ragan  and  Mrs.  Shaughnessy  turn- 
ed their  cannon  from  one  another  to  sweet, 


216  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

mutual  defence,  and  a  volley  of  sarcasm 
pointed  outward. 

"Look  to  3^er  own  Bamboo  dwellin's!" 
said  the  dauntless  Mrs.  O'Ragan.  "  Whin  I 
washed  for  yer  wife,  Mr.  Capron,  sure  didn't 
I  see  the  maid  emp'yin'  all  the  refuge  into  a 
hole  forninst  the  kitchen  windy  ?  Ha !  ha !" 

Mrs.  Shaughnessy  also  laughed  valiantly. 

Mr.  Capron  blushed  contemptuously.  "  We 
have  never  had  a  case  of  severe  illness  in  our 
house,  madam." 

"  No,  and  ye're  not  a  poor  soul,  overborne 
wid  trial  and  misfortin',  that  was  daintily 
r'ared,  like  the  poor  sick  lady  that's  higher 
borned  than  iver  ye  had  any  dr'amin'  of; 
but  whin  she's  ill,  ye  must  come  here  nosin' 
around  to  find  the  cause  of  it  in  a  bit  of 
orange -pale  in  the  coort-yard  or  a  mug  o' 
stale  milk  on  me  panthry  shilf !  Do  ye  make 
yer  girdle-cakes  o'  swate  milk,  then  ?  God 
knows  when  I  ate  them  to  your  house,  I 
thought  I  was  'atin'  the  soles  off  me  own 
shoes!  Ha!  ha!" 

"  Ha !  ha !"  echoed  Mrs.  Shaughnessy,  with 
delirious  scorn. 


STUART    AND    BAMBOO  217 

"  But  come  in  ;  the  law  sint  ye.  Come  in 
and  smill !  From  the  odors  I  met  wid  in  yer 
own  risidence  it  will  be  a  pleasant  change  to 
ye ;  and  I  don't  begrudge  yer  eyes  for  onct 
from  dwellin'  on  a  clane  staircase !" 

Mrs.  Shaughnessy,  absorbed  in  admiration 
of  her  general,  gave  a  rapturous  giggle. 

"  Come  in !  Come  in  and  smill — do !''  re- 
peated Mrs.  O'Ragan. 

Very  haughtily  the  two  gentlemen  in- 
spected the  place  and  premises.  "  There 
may  be  no  direct  cause  of  fever  here,  mad- 
am, but  the  general  appearance  is  unkempt 
and  shackling.  Look  at  that  old  broom,  for 
instance,  leaning  against  the  outside  of  the 
house." 

"  Look  at  it !"  said  Mrs.  O'Ragan,  folding 
her  arms,  her  cable  taut — "  look  at  it !  wid  a 
bit  of  a  white  rag  tied  to  it  for  dark  nights ! 
Look  at  it!  but  tech  it  -wid  a  point  o'  yer 
finger,  and  I'll  saze  it  and  lay  it  over  the 
Bamboo  o'  the  two  o'  ye !  Begone !" 

"  I've  been  told  she's  a  vixen,"  said  one 
inspector  to  the  other,  not  taking  the  pains 
to  make  the  remark  inaudible  to  its  subject. 


218  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

Mrs.  O'Ragan,  with  folded  arms  of  full 
contempt,  watched  them  out  of  sight.  She 
then  leaned  her  head  over  on  Mrs.  Shaugh- 
nessy  and  wept. 

"  The  dear,  swate  lady !  I  feel  it  in  ray 
sowl  'tis  goin'  hard  wid  her.  Me  heart's 
clane  broke,  Katie,  dear.  The  house  is  goin' 
disthracted,  and  mesilf  wid  it,  sinct  she  was 
taken  ill." 

Mrs.  Shaughnessy  bore  her  commander 
soothingly  on  her  breast. 

"  'Tis  one  o'  yer  own  family,  Bridget,  and 
the  swatest,  and  it's  tearin'  the  poor  gizzard 
out  o'  ye.  Maybe  ye  nade  a  drhop  o'  some- 
thin'  sustainin'." 

"  I  detist  the  sight  o'  it,"  said  Mrs.  O'Ra- 
gan,  "but  maybe  'twill  keep  me  up  to 
perform  me  duties  and  drowned  me  sor- 
rows. Don't  be  seen  in  the  dram-shop, 
Katie — 'tis  not  ilegant  —  but  get  it  off  the 
sody  man,  and  tell  him  'tis  wanted  only 
physical.  Mind  the  word,  Katie  —  get  it 
physical." 

Readily  Mrs.  Shaughnessy  threw  the 
fringe  of  her  shawl  over  her  head  and 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  219 

stalked  her  tall  and  slender  person  jauntily 
to  the  druggist's. 

"  A  quart  of  it,  physical,"  said  she. 

"  A  quart  of  what  ?  if  you  please,  mad- 
am." 

"  Oh,  get  away  wid  ye !"  said  Mrs.  Shaugh- 
nessy,  who  had  been  something  of  a  flirt  in 
her  day ;  and  she  winked — the  technicali- 
ties of  commonplace  existence  not  being  un- 
known to  her  either. 

"  What  quality  will  you  have,  madam  ?" 

"  Ye  didn't  know,  did  ye !"  the  lady  airily 
rated  him.  "Sure,  your  best  physical,"  and 
with  her  parcel  under  her  arm,  she  returned 
to  her  fellow-wrestler  in  life's  Olympic  ring. 

Now  Mrs.  O'Ragan  and  Mrs.  Shaughness}^ 
never  got  drunk ;  it  was  seldom,  and  only 
under  circumstances  of  peculiar  distress,  that 
they  imbibed  at  all,  and  when  they  did  so, 
it  was  by  table-spoonfuls  at  regular  inter- 
vals, that  sustained  Mrs.  O'Ragan  in  a  con- 
dition gloomily  intrepid  and  kept  her  lighter- 
witted  companion  trippingly  elate.  Under 
this  stimulus,  however,  duties  even  out  of 
the  ordinary  round  now  appealed  to  them. 


220 

"  'Tis  a  long  time  since  the  cats  has  had  a 
dose  o'  catnip,  Bridget.  We  would  not  be 
havin'  the  poor  cr'atures  in  fits." 

"True.  Catch  them  and  bring  them  in 
to  me,  Katie,  while  I'm  puttin'  the  'arb  to 
draw." 

This  injunction  Mrs.  Shaughnessy  proceed- 
ed to  obey,  with  a  perkish  impartiality  of 
detail  grabbing  one  cat  after  another  off  the 
fence,  where  they  lay  sunning  in  an  appar- 
ently interminable  line.  Mrs.  O'Ragan,  with 
a  solemnity  as  methodical,  dosed  them  and 
returned  them  to  the  world  of  nature. 

At  last  Mrs.  Shaughnessy  brought  in  a 
cat  with  what  had  once  been  a  beautiful 
ribbon  round  its  neck,  and  at  sight  of  it  Mrs. 
O'Ragan  threw  up  her  spoon  wildly,  over- 
turning the  dish  of  catnip  on  the  stove,  and 
buried  her  face  in  her  hands. 

"  'Tis  her  kitten !     Oh,  me !  oh,  me !" 

Mrs.  Shaughnessy  purged  a  spoonful  of  tea 
from  the  streaming  mixture  on  the  stove, 
administered  it  to  the  cat  with  an  unceremo- 
nious dismissal,  and  then  put  her  head  down 
and  began  to  weep,  her  mercurial  sympathies 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  221 

flowing  as  readily  in  tears  as  in  mirth.  Thus 
Plantagenet  found  them  and  regarded  them 
with  hopeful  curiosity. 

"  Plontogonet,"  said  Mrs.  O'Ragan,  "  yer 
mother's  weery,  me  child.  Will  yez  black 
the  stove  for  her  ?" 

The  boy's  eyes  shone.  Left  alone  in  the 
room,  he  first  polished  the  stove  energetical- 
ly, then  decided  to  take  it  to  pieces  and  put 
it  together  again  —  a  thing  that  had  long 
been  one  of  the  minor  objects  of  his  ambi- 
tion. He  was  a  strong  lad,  and  he  was  suc- 
ceeding admirably  in  the  process  of  dissec- 
tion, when,  as  though  he  had  touched  the 
main -spring  or  combination  key  in  some 
subtle  joint,  the  whole  structure,  preluded 
by  the  frying-pans,  and  consummated  by 
the  stove-pipe,  fell  over  him  on  the  floor. 
Extricating  himself,  he  fled  with  a  few 
bounds  to  Sanctuary. 

It  was  Saturday  evening,  and  O'Ragan 
himself,  coming  home  with  a  bit  of  comfort 
in  his  pocket,  scented  a  general  air  of  con- 
cession to  human  frailties  in  the  house — an 
infringement  on  the  decorous  conservatism  of 


222  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

manner  which  had  prevailed  since  the  fine 
lady  cume  to  dwell  among  them.  lie  sighed 
and  patiently  put  up  the  stove. 

Both  Mrs.  O'Ragan  and  Mrs.  Shaughnessy 
commended  him.  "  'Tis  a  good  man  I  have, 
Katie.  Heaven  grant  I'll  niver  see  no  insur- 
ance on  him !  Sure  I'd  be  flingin'  it  back  in 
the  face  o'  them  for  an  insoolt  that  'u'd  go 
offerin'  me  insurance  on  me  man — the  poor, 
patient  cr'atur' !" 

"  He  is  that !"  replied  Mrs.  Shaughnessy  ; 
"  and  a  mate  for  me  own,  that's  got  an  as- 
surance on  him,  too;  but  let  anybody  come 
offerin'  that  same  to  me,  he'd  think  'twas  the 
expriss  had  struck  'm!  If  there's  anything 
more  to  say,"  added  Mrs.  Shaughnessy,  "  me 
fists  shall  say  it !" 

"Beautiful  women  desarves  good  hus- 
ban's,"  said  O'Ragan,  who  had  taken  a  sip 
of  refreshment  while  at  work.  He.  indeed, 
had  been  originally  a  handsome  man,  and  he 
now  rose  and  bowed  low. 

Mrs.  O'Ragan  put  her  apron  to  her  eyes 
with  painful  pleasure.  Mrs.  Shaughnessy 
laughed  coquettishly. 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  223 

"  Rose  of  Killarney !"  said  O'Ragan,  bow- 
ing low  before  his  wife,  "  will  ye  h'ist  a  step 
o'  the  ould  dance  wid  me  ?" 

Mrs.  O'Ragan's  pessimism  —  unlike  Mrs. 
Herkimer's — was  always  valiant.  She  rose 
and  courtesied  with  a  melodramatic  sweep  of 
her  draperies. 

"  "Wait  ti'  I  get  Jamie  !"  said  Mrs.  Shaugh- 
nessy,  "  and  we'll  have  the  '  Peeler's  Keel,' 
wid  the  windy  open  for  a  revivin'  breath  on 
us." 

"With  Jamie  came  others,  male  and  female, 
buoyed  up  by  the  trifling  elation  incident  to 
a  week  well  ended.  Plantagenet  ventured 
down  and  found  his  obliquities  lost,  like  dry 
leaves,  far  down  the  winds  of  oblivion.  De- 
lightedly he  went  out  and  tacked  a  placard 
over  the  sentinel  broom : 

CIRKUS  IN  HERE!! 

GOTES  A  DIM/-:. 
KIDS  A  NIGKKIL. 

After  a  markedly  decorous  dance  the  oc- 
cupants of  the  kitchen  sat  down  and  reflected 
with  acute  sympathy  the  stanchly  sorrow- 


224  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

ful  countenance  of  their  hostess.  She  whis- 
pered to  her  husband.  "  I  move,"  said  he, 
gallantly,  "  that  a  contribution  be  taken  up 
for  the  ilegant  lady  in  misfortin'  that's  sick 
above-stairs." 

With  the  natural  air  of  a  lord,  he  emptied 
all  the  money  that  was  his  by  Saturday- 
night  possession  into  the  hat ;  he  literally 
cleaned  out  his  pockets,  and  joy  without 
compunction  shone  on  his  features  as  he 
passed  the  receptacle  on.  A  like  example 
of  voluptuous  giving  was  shown  on  every 
side.  The  sum — and  it  was  not  an  incon- 
siderable one — was  handed  to  Mrs.  O'Ragan, 
and  she  toiled  up- stairs  with  it,  her  heart 
beating  for  joy. 

Helen  came  out. 

"'Tis  a  bit  of  remimbrance  among  us, 
darlin',  remimbrin'  the  kindness  and  love  of 
the  dear  one  that's  afflicthed,"  and  she  emp- 
tied the  sum  with  trembling  haste  and  turned 
to  retreat. 

"  Stop !"  said  Helen.  "  Stop !  Mrs.  O'Ra- 
gan." Catholics  and  Jews  and  what  not! 
And  the  girl  had  been  trained  in  rigorous 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  225 

distrust  of  them  all.  But  Helen  was  an  in- 
tuitive scholar,  and  the  tears  swam  in  her 
eyes  and  her  cheeks  were  flushed  with  a  feel- 
ing that  was  not  indignation.  "Stop!"  said 
she,  pressing  the  money  back  into  Mrs.  O'Ra- 
gan's  hands;  "  when  she  is  able  she  shall  know 
of  your  lovely  kindness.  But  she  does  not 
need  this — she  has  more  than  sufficient — she 
had  something  reserved  in  a  case  of  need 
like  this.  Thank  you,  with  all  my  heart! 
Thank  you  all !" 

Mrs.  O'Ragan  returned,  explained,  and  re- 
distributed the  money. 

"'Tis  swately  she  done  it,"  said  she. 
"  Sure  'tis  a  Bamboo  she  is,  but  steppin' 
handy  on  the  idge  o'  convarsion,  and  pug- 
geratory  niver  '11  contain  her  lang,  mark  me 
words  to  that !" 

The  distributants  took  back  their  cash, 
not  as  cheerfully  as  it  had  been  given,  but 
with  philosophy. 

"  Well  thin,  God  be  thanked  !"  said  they. 

Isaac,  coming  home,  saw  the  sign  posted 
over  the  sentinel  broom,  and  withdrew  it, 
his  sombre  eyes  lighting  only  with  a  sort  of 


236  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

fatherly  compassion  for  the  vagabond  Plan- 
tagenet.  He  called  him,  and  the  sad  one  ap- 
peared. Plantagenet  now,  whether  involved 
in  crime,  in  debt,  or  in  affection,  equally 
trusted  the  Jew. 

"  Is  that  a  nice  thing  to  have  posted  on 
the  house,  when  a  lady  of  the  Stuarts  is 
lying  ill,  think  you  ?" 

"  I  didn'  mean  to !  I  don'  care  what  hap- 
pens— the  heart  o'  me's  clane  broke  in  me !" 
said  Plantagenet,  accepting  his  mother's  lan- 
guage in  his  desperation,  and  laying  his  head 
in  his  ragged  sleeve. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

IN  a  room  that  Helen  kept  chaste  and 
quiet  from  all  the  small  turmoils  of  life, 
Margaret  rambled  on  through  a  fever  as 
weary  and  capricious  as  if  the  pulse  of  life 
were  maimed  and  could  never  take  up  its 
normal  course  again.  Strange  vagaries  ab- 
sorbed her  fitfully,  and  might  have  enter- 
tained one  with  a  keener  sense  of  humor  than 
Helen  Herkimer;  but  Helen  took  all  with 
careful  seriousness,  weighed  these  swallow 
flights,  and  returned  them  with  just  appre- 
ciation and  a  smile  of  constant  loyalty.  Pos- 
sibly, this  gravity  of  manner  helped  Marga- 
ret back  to  the  gravity  of  existence.  Agnes, 
no  less  tender,  giggled  unguardedly  now  and 
then. 

"Sister,"  said  Margaret,  "you  are  good, 
but  in  this  present  ex — ex—"  said  the  sick 
one,  laying  her  hand  on  her  head  for  her 


228  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

vagrant  list  of  long  words — "  I  need,  besides 
you,  a  Catholic,  a  true  Catholic." 

"So?  Dear  Miz'  Stuart,  God  shall  bless 
you !  I  am  doze  all  ovaire !"  cried  Agnes, 
cheerfully. 

"But  I  need,"  said  Margaret,  with  her 
large  eyes  solemn  and  exalted  to  the  occa- 
sion, "one  who  has  taken  vows — like  this 
one!"  She  touched  Helen  reverently  with 
her  thin  hand. 

Helen  blushed  painfully.  Here  was  a  jag- 
ged problem  indeed. 

Agnes  regarded  the  situation  with  broad 
optimism. 

"  I  will  go  look  after  my  boys  one  while 
now,"  she  said  ;  "then  I  shall  relief  you." 

Margaret  heard  the  door  close,  and  pon- 
dered deeply  what  she  would  next  say. 

"I  would  not  talk,"  said  Helen,  with  the 
utmost  gentleness.  "  I  would  not  talk  now." 

"  I  must.  As  the  saint — angel — God  sent 
to  me,  will  you — you — take  my  trouble  and 
con — condition  and  all  off  of  me  and  bear 
them — till  I  know  how  to  do  so?  Now,  will 
you?" 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  229 

Helen  met  frankly  the  compelling  intent- 
ness  of  the  other's  look. 

"  Christ  will  do  that,"  she  said,  slowly. 

"Very  —  very  true,"  was  the  response, 
startling  in  a  naked  simplicity  of  logic ;  "  but 
I  do  not  see  Him,  and  I  see  you.  Now,  will 
you?" 

Margaret,  in  health,  had  a  way  of  putting 
her  soul  into  her  eyes,  and  now  they  regard- 
ed Helen  as  though  life  itself  hung  on  the 
solution  of  the  theme  propounded. 

Helen  turned  very  pale;  the  fountains  of 
her  orthodoxy  were  stirred.  Impiety — pro- 
fanity itself — stared  her  in  the  face. 

The  dilemma  suited  the  recumbent  one ;  she 
had  a  grateful  sense  that  she  was  still  up  to 
the  discussion  of  metaphysical  subtleties,  and 
that  Helen  would  take  no  vantage  ground. 

Helen  watched  the  shadow  of  a  hand 
trembling  on  the  coverlet.  The  doctor  had 
said  a  day  would  decide  the  fever's  turn 
now.  It  was  no  time  for  ecclesiastical  logic 
or  excitement.  She  closed  her  eyes  with  an 
inaudible  "  Forgive  me !"  and  let  her  ortho- 
doxy slip  to  the  winds. 


230  STUART    AND   BAMBOO 

"'Yes,  I  will,"  she  said,  with  the  usual 
careful  decision,  and  a  smile  even  more  than 
usually  reassuring. 

Margaret  sank  back  as  though  the  moun- 
tains had  been  rolled  off  of  her,  slept  and 
slept,  and  woke,  feeble,  but  autocratically 
sane.  "  When  can  I  see  Mildred?"  she  said. 
"  I  am  anxious  about  Plantagenet.  I  would 
like  to  see —  '  the  pinched  face  flushed. 
"  Please  hand  me  my  porridge,  Helen.  I  get 
nothing  to  eat !" 

Now  Helen's  rival,  in  her  crude  way,  had 
been  growing  into  and  putting  on  something 
of  the  regalia  of  saintship  too.  Truth  to 
tell,  Mildred  had  never  once  admired  herself 
in  her  "Salvation"  bonnet;  her  thoughts 
had  turned  another  way,  like  the  straight 
flight  of  a  bird.  Nevertheless,  her  allurini: 
features  had  never  been  framed  in  anything 
so  becoming. 

Jeff  protested,  while  admiring. 

"  Well,  wear  what  you  like,  do  what  you 
like — only  you're  not  going  to  shift  me  off; 
you  are  not  going  to  get  so  good  that  you 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  231 

want  to  do  that.  I'll  throttle  you  first!" 
Jeff  laughed,  but  with  considerable  excite- 
ment. 

Mildred  had  made  up  her  mind  to  some- 
thing. It  cut  her  at  every  word  she  uttered, 
like  the  sapping  of  a  young  tree,  but  she  did 
not  flinch. 

"Helen  Herkimer  is  a  saint,  Jeff;  she'd 
give  her  life  for  anybody !  She'll  never  be 
put  out  of  her  rights  by  me !" 

"  "What  do  you  mean  ?  If  you  think  you'll 
turn  me  back  to  Helen  with  that  kind  of 
talk,  you  will  see !"  he  threatened,  harshly. 
"Helen  is  all  right,  but  she's  nothing  to 
me." 

"Well,  then,"  said  Mildred,  with  another 
swift  decision,  "  I  care  more  for  somebody 
else,  Jeff,"  and  she  wet  her  lips  and  drew 
her  breath  as  though  she  had  just  gathered 
herself  up  from  a  blow.  "If  I  tell  him," 
she  thought,  "  that  it  is  to  do  the  Only 
Right,  though  it  kills  me,  and  that  it  is  my 
Lord  Saviour  I  love  best,  he  will  laugh  and 
wait ;  he  will  never  leave  off — so  this  settles 
it.  Some  time,  maybe — he'll  know.*' 


232  STUAET   AND    BAMBOO 

So  Mildred,  too,  trod  the  Jesuitical  path, 
with  a  bleeding  heart  of  self-sacrifice  at 
least. 

Jeff's  shock  head  seemed  stunned ;  his  own 
lips  grew  thin  and  parched. 

"  Somebody  down  at  the  Salvation  Army?" 
he  said,  mechanically. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mildred,  "  it's  Somebody  down 
at  the  Salvation  Army.  (Some  time,  per- 
haps, he'll  know — he'll  know.)" 

"Well,  by  God!  Helen's  faithful,  any- 
way!" sneered  the  young  fellow  in  a  high 
voice.  Quivering,  and  without  another  word, 
he  turned  and  walked  away. 

Mildred  crawled  home  like  a  broken  thing. 
"But  it's  right  — it's  right!  It's  got  to 
be  borne !  Oh,  Jeff !  Oh,  my  boy !  my 
boy!— 

" '  Saviour,  more  than  life  to  me, 
I  am  clinging,  clinging ' " — 

this  special  Salvationist's  voice,  usually  so 
confident  and  clear,  sounded  more  now  like 
a  spent  old  woman's  as  she  climbed  up  the 
lodging  stairs — 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  233 

" '  close  to  Thee. 

Trusting  Thee,  I  shall  not  stray. 
I  shall  never — never — lose  my  way. 
Never — never ' " — 

sobbed  the  voice,  low  and  brokenly— 
"  '  lose  my  -way."' 

"Miss  Sen'  Tammy,"  said  the  landlady, 
"  they've  sent  down  word  to  ye ;  ye  can  come 
see  the  lady  ye've  been  frettin'  over.  She's 
not  dangerons  any  more." 

"  Thank  you,  yes,  I'm  going.  '  Never, 
never,'  "  the  voice  clung  persistently  to  the 
strain,  "  '  lose-my-way.'  " 

Having  brushed  her  hair  into  the  austere 
form  she  had  adopted,  and  from  which  it 
was  ever  in  a  gay  quarrel  to  escape,  Mil- 
dred, with  a  gentle  and  cautious  touch,  took 
from  among  her  belongings  the  white  dress 
Margaret  had  given  her,  and  as  quietly  un- 
folded it. 

"  I  think,  to  please  her,"  she  whispered  to 
herself,  "  I'll  wear  the  white  dress ;  I've  nev- 
er had  it  on.  Yes,  I  think,  to  please  her, 


234  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

I'll  wear  it.  I  sha'n't  be  proud,"  she  gasped, 
"  nor  take  back  Jeff.  I  see  the  way.  I'm 
going  to  walk  it.  And  I  think,  to  please 
her,  I  can  put  it  on  now. 

*'  'Never — never — lose — my — way.'  " 

Thus  arrayed,  Mildred  turned  away  from 
the  glass,  cold  to  the  vivid  charms  reflected 
there.  This  unbaptized  vagrant  of  the  can- 
ning factory  had  a  stout  heart  when  she 
"saw  the  way"  and  realized  in  her  simple 
faith  once  more  a  capacity  for  the  old  feat 
of  martyrdom. 

Jeff  saw  her  pass,  glowering  from  a  shop- 
window,  where  he  was  buying  a  new  tie  for 
some  purpose.  Fine  cords  drew  and  pinched 
his  heart  at  that  radiant  vision,  but  he  set 
his  teeth  and  turned  to  a  higher  brilliancy 
in  his  selection  of  color. 

"If  she  thinks  she  can  throw  me  off  as 
light  as  an  old  shoe,  and  watch  me  suffer, 
she's  mistaken!  I'll  go  make  merry  with 
Helen — that  is,  as  merry  as  one  can." 

Margaret  read  a  clear  story  when  Mildred 
came  in — Helen,  too.  But  the  girl  chatted 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  235 

away  of  bits  of  pleasant  news,  and  how  fast 
Margaret  was  gaining,  and  she  heard  the 
doctor  had  said  "  'twas  Helen  Herkiraer  that 
saved  her." 

Helen  was  regarding  the  girl  with  the 
wonder  of  a  new  conviction. 

"And  you  are  working  in  the  same 
place  ?"  said  Margaret. 

"  Yes,  there,  and  in  the  Army." 

"  Oh  yes,  I  know !  I  know !"  said  Marga- 
ret, as  if  she  had  been  told.  "  Do  you  work 
in  the  Army  ?" 

"I  should  think  so!"  Mildred,  laughing, 
held  up  her  hands  in  confirmation.  "We 
look  them  up,  we  scrub  and  wash  and  nurse 
and  sew.  Yes,  I  should  think  so.  Why, 
there'd  be  no  life  in  it  if  you  did  not  work !" 

"When  I  am  stronger,"  said  the  Stuart, 
holding  the  girl's  hands  at  leave-taking,  "  I 
want  to  learn  some  things  of  you.  I  know ! 
I  know !  darling." 

Mildred  blushed  with  a  quick  joy.  "I 
am  going  away,"  she  bent  and  whispered— 
"  a  long  way  off.  It  will  be  best  for  Jeff — 
and  all.  I  am  going  to  work  in  the  place 


236  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

where  my  aunt  lives.  There's  work  there 
and  the  Army  just  the  same." 

"  I  know  !  I  know,"  said  Margaret,  still  as 
if  she  had  been  told.  But  she  clung  to  the 
girl's  hand. 

Mildred  seemed  the  older,  with  that  strong 
peace  on  her  face  as  she  stooped  to  Mar- 
garet. 

"  I  shall  have  you  always,"  she  said — "  al- 
ways. And  some  time  I  shall  have  you 
where  people  don't  get  wrenched  apart." 
And  at  that  she  kissed  her  as  if  there  were 
need  of  haste,  for  people  had  a  way  of  lov- 
ing Margaret  not  appreciable  except  in  the 
fact  itself. 

Mildred  went  home  and  laid  the  white 
dress  away.  "There's  another  time  when 
I'll  wear  it,"  she  said;  and  the  broken- 
hearted girl  was  thinking  of  that  "  Lover 
down  at  the  Salvation  Army,"  the  tryst 
with  Whom  is  kopt  only  by  the  fording  of  a 
certain  cold  stream. 

Plantagenet  and  Isaac  knew  that  their 
lady  had  been  receiving  a  friend  or  two,  and, 
under  the  disguise  of  talking  about  bait  for 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  237 

upog"  fishing,  they  comforted  the  turbulence 
of  one  another's  hearts  in  the  front  yard. 

"  Plontojonay !  Plontojonay  !"  called  Ag- 
nes, from  the  window, ''  Miz'  Stuart  say  she 
see  you  one  meenet !" 

Plantagenet  was  indeed  already  brushed 
and  in  his  best,  but  now  he  fell  a-trerabling. 
He  caught  up  with  Tommy  Sullivan  on  the 
stairs.  Tommy,  always  eating  bread  and 
treacle,  was  as  broad  as  he  was  long.  Too 
indifferent  for  more  active  service  in  the 
"Kore,"  he  had  been  deputed  to  priestly 
office  and  had  been  given  a  name  from  Plan- 
tagenet's  own  book  of  history. 

"  Come  'long,  Leggit,"  said  the  trembling 
commander-in-chief.  "I  want  you  to  come 
'long  with  me !" 

Tommy,  his  hands  dripping  sweetness,  had 
no  objection  to  disseminating  it  further — in- 
deed, he  rather  affected  progression.  Plan- 
tagenet thrust  him  first  into  the  room. 

"  I  thought  you  might  like  to  see  this  lit- 
tle chub,"  he  gasped,  obviously  seeking  to 
hide  his  own  perturbation.  "  He's '  Leggit  of 
the  'Postolic  See.' " 


238  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

The  Legate  of  the  Apostolic  See  took  a 
bite  from  the  overflowing  gifts  of  Providence, 
and  gazed  with  indifferent  and  general  in- 
terest about  the  room. 

At  the  sight  Margaret  laughed  as  though 
the  world  had  come  back  to  her. 

"  And  you,  Plantagenet,  why  do  you  not 
come  up  and  speak  to  me  ?" 

Plantagenet  had  a  look  holier  than  when 
he  carried  the  candles.  He  stepped  stiffly  to- 
wards Margaret's  bedside.  " How  de  do?"  he 
said.  But  at  the  touch  of  her  hand  he  choked. 

"Why,  my  little  boy  !"  she  said,  and  drew 
his  face  down;  and  at  that  this  poor  Irish 
vagabond  and  great  living  representative  of 
the  Stuarts  fell  a-sobbing. 

"  What  is  the  matter  ?" — Isaac  waited  for 
him  below — "  is  she  worse  ?" 

"  No,  no,"  said  Plantagenet,  growing  stout 
at  the  sight  of  one  even  more  sentimental 
than  himself  ;  "  no,  sir  ;  she's  boss." 

"  What  are  you  crying  about  ?" 

"Why,  she — she  kisst  me!  and  she  wins- 
pert  to  me,  too !" 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  239 

"  Did  she  ask — about  any  of  us  ?'' 

"  She  whispert  me  ef  you  was  well." 

"No!" 

"  Yes,  sir — she  did ;  and  I — I  said  you  was 
thinner  'n  an  old  sea-quail  wi'  worritin'  about 
her!" 

"  Honor  bright,  Plantagenet  ?"  Isaac  was 
trembling  now. 

"  Honor  bright !"  Plantagenet's  beautiful 
eyes  were  lifted,  unassailable,  with  the  heart- 
broken truth. 

"  Let's  go  down-town,  Plantagenet." 

"  See  here,"  said  Isaac,  pausing  before  a 
shop-window,  "you've  worn  a  navy  cap  so 
long  now  you  are  really  commander  of  a  land 
force,  you  know !  "What  do  you  say  to  that 
major-general's  cap  in  there  with  the  gilt 
bands?" 

"  She's  none  too  much  for  me !"  said  Plan- 
tagenet. And,  in  truth,  the  -cap  was  none 
too  great  for  him. 

"Them  pink  sodys  look  nice  in  there, 
don't  they  ?"  Plantagenet  suggested,  as  they 
moved  on. 

"Why,  to  be  sure!     What  flavor  is  that? 


240  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

Strawberry  ?  Ah,  that's  good  !  that's  good  ! 
Come,  we'll  go  in!  We  must  brace  up,  my 
boy,  for  we've  some  shopping  to  do  yet !" 

And  the  treasures  with  which  Plantagenet 
returned  home  after  that  memorable  walk 
occupied  rapturous  days  for  himself  and 
Granny  in  Sanctuary. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

JEFF  took  the  first  opportunity  of  Helen's 
partial  return  to  her  home  to  present  himself. 

Helen  had  never  seen  him  look  so  much 
like  his  father.  He  had  gotten  himself  up, 
face  and  all,  for  a  hypocrite,  only  whereas 
the  father  was  smooth,  the  son  was  an  ill 
one ;  and  the  torment  produced  in  the  pierc- 
ing of  his  swart  neck  by  an  immaculate  new 
collar  showed  in  undisguised  anguish  on  his 
face. 

"  I  am  glad,  Helen,"  he  began,  "  that  you 
have  been  so  good  to  Mrs.  Stuart.  I  am 
very  fond  of  her  myself.  "We  are  all  very 
fond  of  her.  I  wish  that  she  would  marry 
my  father.  Do  you  think" — Jeff  saw  with 
horror  that  his  kid  glove  had  split  at  the 
thumb.  He  concealed  the  rent  with  a  flur- 
ried attempt  at  secrecy — "  do  you  think  that 
she  will  ever  marry  my  father  ?" 


242  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

"  I  am  very  sure,  Jeff,  that  she  will  never 
marry  your  father." 

"No,  I  should  think  not,"  said  Jeff,  throw- 
ing his  arms  out  and  letting  his  fine  raiment 
strain  and  creak  as  it  liked.  "  We  are  to  be 
trifled  with  and  thrown  over  and  snubbed ! 
That  is  what  we  are  for !" 

"Jeffrey,"  said  Helen,  meeting  his  anger 
with  a  pair  of  dark  eyes,  kind,  but  not  easy 
to  get  away  from,  "  has  anybody  snubbed 
you?" 

Jeff  fairly  perspired  in  this  dilemma. 

"  You  are  snubbing  me  now  by  looking  at 
me  as  though  I  were  a  beast." 

"You  do  not  seem  to  me  like  a  beast  at 
all,  Jeff.  You  seem  to  me  like  an  honest 
fellow,  who  has  something  on  his  heart  to 
tell  me." 

"  I  al — always  loved  you,  Helen,"  respond- 
ed the  faithless  Jeff,  with  tears;  "but  she 
was  so  loud  and  jolly  and — handsome !" 

"Mildred?" 

"  Yes — the  hussy !  She's  run  off  and  gone 
to  the  bad  with  another  fellow  !  Serves  her 
right!" 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  243 

"  I  will  tell  you  what  she  did.  She  is  a 
noble  girl — Mildred  St.  Thomas  is.  She  has 
not  run  off  with  any  man  at  all.  She  has 
given  herself  to  be  good  and  true  and  to  help 
others,  and  she  left  you  of  her  own  resolve, 
because  it  seemed  to  her  a  duty." 

"  She7  told  me  she  liked  somebody  else  bet- 
ter." 

"  She  meant  the  very  highest  devotion  of 
all,  Jeff." 

"  Oh — guns !"  said  Jeff,  whose  spiritual 
perceptions  still  hardly  attained  to  the  pri- 
mary form.  "  I  beg  your  pardon,  Helen — I 
mean — oh — 

"  And  if  you  love  her  truly,  you  would 
better  try  to  walk  the  same  path  she  is  going 
so  bravely  in,  and  then  you  might  meet 
some  time  and  be  worthy  of  one  another.  I 
do  not  think,  as  it  was,  you  would  have 
helped  one  another.  But  now— 

Jeff's  jaw  fell.  Helen,  calmly  giving  him 
away,  had  never  looked  so  charming.  Hel- 
en's black  hair  waved  amazingly  prettily,  and 
how  small  and  dainty  her  ears  were !  and 
such  a  proud,  tantalizing,  womanly  smile! 


244  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

Jeff  leaped  up.  "Do  you  think  I  would 
marry  anybody,  Helen  Herkimer,  that  went 
gaping  around  the  streets  in  a  poke-bonnet, 
yelling,  and  shaking  a  drum  -  head  with  a 
fringe  of  bells  round  it !  Well,  you  have  an 
opinion  of  me!  Ha!  ha!"  He  took  a 
righteously  injured  attitude. 

Helen's  eyes  dwelt  on  him  with  some  con- 
tempt. He  melted  and  fell. 

"I'm  a  good-for-nothing  ass,"  said  he. 
"  I'm  going  out  to  drown  myself." 

"  I  would  be  a  man,  with  God's  help,  first !" 
said  Helen.  "  It  would  be  kinder  to  those 
you  leave." 

"  But  you  don't  love  me  any  more.  Oh, 
Helen !"  Jeff,  with  unpremeditated  tragedy, 
knelt  before  her  and  laid  his  pitiable  head  on 
her  knee.  "  I  do  love  you  !  I  love  you  more 
than  I  ever  loved,  or  ever  could  love,  any 
other  woman.  Oh,  Helen,  I'll  be  all  that  you 
wish,  if  you'll  only  have  me !" 

Helen's  slender  fingers  did  not  run  into 
his  hair  as  they  had  done  in  days  of  blessed 
memory  so  perilously  lost.  He  waited  in 
vain. 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  245 

"  Oh,  Helen !" 

She  gently  pushed  him  up  and  away  from 
her.  What  a  grave,  beautiful,  womanly  face 
she  had ! 

"  You  cannot  prove  it  to  me  by  any  words, 
Jeff.  You  can  only  prove  it  by  time  and 
your  own  actions." 

"  I  will  prove  it !" 

"  Very  well."     She  was  moving  away. 

"  Oh,  Helen !" 

She  was  gone. 

Jeff  stood  like  a  statue,  pale  and  ponder- 
ing. 

"  Well,  Jeffrey,"  said  Mrs.  Herkimer,  'ob- 
serving him  as  she  swept  into  the  room,  "  I 
see  you  have  caught  the  family  depression." 

"  If  I  could  catch  anything  of  Helen,"  said 
Jeff,  "  I'd  take  it  and  die  of  it  with  pleasure." 

"  I  must  say,  Jeffrey,  I  should  prefer  to 
choose  my  own  disease,  and  not  go  into 
everything,  hit  or  miss,  as  Helen  does." 

"  She  may  go  into  all  the  diseases  she 
likes,  Mrs.  Herkimer,  and  I'll  go  with  her 
and  help  her  to  the  best  of  my  poor,  poor 
ability,  if  she'll  only  let  me !" 


246  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

Mrs.  Herkimer's  attention  by  this  time  had 
become  more  close!}'  fixed. 

"You've  experienced  a  change,  perhaps, 
Jeffrey  ?"  she  said,  with  a  soothing  air  of  sec- 
tarian hopefulness. 

"  Yes,  yes,"  said  the  materially  minded 
Jeff,  with  wild  regret;  "I  experienced  a 
change,  Mrs.  Herkimer,  but  I'm  all  over  it, 
thank  God,  forever !" 

"Well,  well"  —gasped  Mrs.  Herkimer  — 
"  well,  Jeffrey,  harder  cases  have  been  broken 
bv  the  anvil  of  the  rock." 

9? 

"No  anvil  is  ever  going  to  break  me  up 
again,  Mrs.  Herkimer." 

"  Poor  Helen  !"  sighed  the  lady.  "  Well, 
she  courts  obdurit  cases,  and — " 

"  Oh,  if  she'll  only  ever  court  me,"  cried 
Jeff,  "  or  let  me  court  her !" 

"Oh,"  said  Mrs.  Herkimer,  freshly  ad- 
justing her  glasses,  "  I  perceive !  You  are 
arguing  from  a  fleshly  stan'point,  Jef- 
frey?" 

The  captain  laughed  as  he  came  in  with 
his  newspaper.  "  Well,  Nell,  what  stan'- 
point are  you  arguin'  from?  Ye  weigh  a 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  247 

han'some  hunderd  and  eighty,  God  bless  ye ! 
I  wouldn't  have  ye  a  mite  less." 

"  If  I  haven't  pined,  Captain  Herkimer," 
replied  his  lady,  sententiously, "  it  hasn't  been 
for  lack  o'  trials." 

"  Ye  fatten  on  'em,  Nell  —  ye  fatten  on 
'em !"  said  the  captain,  bravely,  gloating  over 
the  first  page  of  his  paper.  "  God  bless  ye, 
Nell — ye  fatten  on  'em !" 

"  Captain  Herkimer,  here  is  a  youth  who 
is  in  a  frame  that,  if  he  might  be  spoken  to 
by  one  who  had  not  hidden  his  light  under  a 
bushel—" 

"  Say  an  oat-bin,  Nell — I'm  a  little  broad- 
er 'n  that — come,  say  an  oat-bin  !" 

"  Under  a  bushel— 

The  captain  looked  up  gravely  at  Jeff 
from  over  his  newspaper.  "  Ye  are  in  a 
frame,  ain't  ye,  my  boy?"  he  said,  kind  and 
comprehensive  sympathy  in  his  eyes,  and 
scanning  Jeff's  tight  new  trousers  and  lacer- 
ated gloves.  "  Go  and  take  off  them  togs, 
Jeff!  What  is  a  strong  young  fellow  like 

<_?    «/  o 

you  doin'  around  in  broad  daylight  with  yer 
legs  pinioned  and  yer  hands  in  a  lot  o'  lilac 


248  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

rags  ?  Go  home  and  get  on  some  clo'es,  ray 
son,  and  go  to  work !  Ye'll  find  what  '  sal- 
vation '  means  then.  Go  to  work  and  make 
yer  way — it's  in  ye — go  to  work,  my  son !" 

Jeff's  intelligence  was  touched  at  last,  and 
his  heart.  ("  My  son !")  He  went  over  and 
grasped  the  captain's  hand. 

"  I'll  prove  worthy  of  Helen,  captain.  I 
will !"  he  said. 

"  Men,"  said  Mrs.  Herkimer,  "  are  all  alike. 
And  yet  there's  a  pernicious  sect  in  this 
town  that's  rabblin'  to  be  saved  on  their  own 
merits !" 

She  sighed,  wholesomely. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

MRS.  HERKIMER  had  vigorous  champions 
in  this  thought  that  she  wot  not  of. 

Mrs.  O'Ragan  and  Mrs.  Shaughnessy,  ap- 
proaching the  dregs  of  that  draught  which 
was  purely  physical,  decided  to  make  an  end, 
and  subsequently  reached  a  condition  even 
of  irascibility  on  ethical  grounds. 

"  'Tis  two  dizzen  can'les  me  own  poor  silf 
has  offered  for  the  dear  lady's  hilth — and 
hilth  it  is  is  lightin'  in  her  swate,  big,  voylet 
eyes  again,  God  be  thanked !" 

"  One  dizzen  have  I." 

"And  yit  there's  some  niver  burns  a 
can'le,  Katie — no,  niver  a  one !" 

Mrs.  Shaughnessy  shook  her  head  inex- 
pressibly. 

"And  yit,"  continued  Mrs.  O'Ragan,  "d' 
ye  hear.  This  very  avenin'  their  haythen 
Bamboo  bells  is  ringin'  in  me  ears." 


250  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

"  I  darst  ye  to  go  in  at  them,  Bridget." 

"  Well  do  ye  know,  Katie,"  said  Mrs. 
O'Ragan,  rising  with  resignation,  "  no  Stuart 
ever  swallys  a  thrit.  I've  a  sevare  cabbage 
thirst  on  me,"  she  interpolated.  "  I'll  stop 
in  at  the  grane  grocer's  and  selict  a  blossom 
o'  the  same  agin  to-morry's  pot." 

"  Would  it  be  well  to  sphrinkle  ourselves 
a  bit,  Bridget,  considerin'  of  where  we're 
goin'  ?" 

"Ye're  not  the  only  one  to  have  the 
thought,  Katie.  Bring  the  holy  wather." 

Mrs.  Shaughnessy,  in  some  confusion  of 
choice,  brought  the  bottle  of  benzoin ;  and 
fragrantly  they  departed. 

Where,  before,  the  suffering  ornamental 
bird  in  Mrs.  O'Ragan's  bonnet  had  held  a 
peanut  in  its  tottering  beak,  Plantagenet 
had  lately  inserted  a  very  old  and  forlorn 
ginger-cookie,  and,  for  further  security,  had 
not  disdained  the  use  of  an  effete  shoestring 
in  clinching  it  in  position. 

Unconsciously,  and  with  an  almost  para- 
lyzing dignity,  Mrs.  O'Ragan  sailed  forth. 

Mrs.  Shaughnessy,  too,  to  give  loftier  dis- 


STUAKT   AND   BAMBOO  251 

approbation  to  her  demeanor,  had  cocked 
her  "  Darby  "  hat  on  one  side. 

As  they  flowed  into  the  unsuspecting 
group  at  the  doors,  they  had  an  unmistak- 
able air  of  wishing  somebody  to  attack  them. 
Though  there  was  no  crowd,  least  of  all  about 
the  pungently  anointed  persons  of  these  two, 
Mrs.  O'Ragan  chose  to  believe  that  she  was 
pressed. 

"  What  the  ding's  the  matter  o'  ye  here  ?" 
she  exclaimed,  valiantly  working  her  elbows 
in  clear  space.  "I'll  see  whether  a  poor 
Irishwoman  is  goin'  to  be  flattened  forninst 
the  wall  be  a  lot  o'  unbelavin'  Bamboos !" 

Mrs.  Shaughnessy  confirmed  this  challenge 
with  a  laugh  of  startling  irony. 

And  all  the  while  it  looked  as  though  the 
whole  innocent  force  of  heresy  combined 
could  hardly  have  flattened  Mrs.  O'Ragan's 
encabled  form  against  the  Avail. 

"  I'm  like  that  old  haythen,  Cram'll,"  she 
continued,  drawing  on  Plantagenet's  history, 
and  addressing  her  amazed  and  inoffensivefoe- 
at-large — "  I'm  like  that  old  haythen,  Cram'll, 
begorry ! — I  niver  counts  me  inimy  !" 


252  STCAKT   AND   BAMBOO 

"  No,  niver,"  said  Katie,  "  nor  me — no,  not 
a  one !" 

And  still  no  combatant  stepped  forth  in 
active  opposition.  The  utmost  largess  of  en- 
vironment was  also  allowed  them  in  their 
selection  of  seats,  and  of  this  they  availed 
themselves,  each  occupying  the  centre  of  a 
form,  with  arms  high-folded,  and  a  posture 
the  most  distinctly  inimical. 

A  rather  pleasantly  argumentative  and 
familiar  discourse  was  being  delivered  from 
the  platform,  to  which  the  fraternity  now 
and  then  responded  with  a  cheerful  "Amen !" 

But  Mrs.  O'Ragan's  spirit  had  by  this  time 
reached  the  trumpet-call  for  the  onset. 

"Amin!  Amin!  Amin!"  she  exclaimed, 
scornfully  aloud,  and  very  much  aloud. 
"Amin  foriverand  yit  niverstoppin'!  Amin! 
and  Amin  !  and  yit  goin'  on  wid  it  always  the 
same!  Ha!  ha!" 

"  Ha !  ha !"  thrillingly  echoed  Katie. 

"Ladies,"  said  a  benevolent-looking  gen- 
tleman, softly  approaching  them  at  this  junc- 
ture, "  allow  me  to  escort  you  to  the  door." 

His  manner  was  so  bland  that  Katie's  vola- 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  253 

tile  nature  instantly  acquiesced,  wearied  be- 
side with  the  heat  and  the  uncongenial  aspect 
of  the  place. 

"  Sure,  yes,"  said  she,  alertly ;  "  we'll  be 
goin'.  Ye  must  excuse  us.  We  only  came 
in  by  r'ason  of  feelin'  a  bit  playful." 

"  Sure,  yes,"  said  Mrs.  O'Ragan,  grimly, 
and  glad  at  heart  to  forsake  the  field  ;  "  'tis 
amusement  intirely  we  came  for." 

"  You  have  both  received  and  given  it. 
Are  these  your  groceries,  madam?"  contin- 
ued the  urbane  individual,  overtaking  Mrs. 
O'Ragan  in  the  aisle  and  courteously  hand- 
ing her  the  unveiled  cabbage,  which  she  had 
purchased  by  the  way  and  frankly  deposited 
on  the  seat  beside  her. 

"  There  now !"  exclaimed  Mrs.  O'Kagan, 
enabled  by  this  rencounter  to  depart  amid 
the  dying  clash  of  arms  in  bannered  victory— 
"  there  now !  a  poor  Irishwoman  can't  come 
in  among  ye  widout  havin'  the  viry  cabbage 
stoled  off  her!  And  so  it  is — Bamboo,  in- 
dade !  —  that  a  poor  hard  -  workin'  woman 
can't  come  in  here  widout  ye'd  be  stalin'  the 
viry  cabbage  off  her !  Ah,  so,  indade !" 


254  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

And  in  this  high  tone,  with  supplementary 
murmurings  of  indignation  from  Katie,  they 
withdrew,  as  it  were,  enlaurelled. 

But  at  home,  after  the  cool  walk,  Mrs. 
O'Ragan  fell  a-sobbing. 

"  Oh,  Katie,  what  have  I  done  ? — me,  a  re- 
spickkable  woman !  Whatever  was  in  me  ? 
Shame  to  me,  Katie !  shame  to  me !" 

"  'Tis  a  bit  fay verish  ye  are,  Bridget  dar- 
lin' !  Sure,  'twas  no  harm  done." 

"  Oh,  Katie,  'tis  many  a  pinance  I'll  do 
mysilf  on  this  night's  ja'nthf !  'Tis  well  I 
served  my  Lord  this  night !  Oh,  shame  on 
me !"  and  fell  again  a-bemoaning. 

So  sincere  and  lamentable  was  her  state, 
Katie,  too,  sank,  pierced  by  contrition,  and 
their  tears  mingled. 

"  'Tis  a  fine  lesson  I've  showed  them  poor 
wand'rin'  Bamboos  this  night !  Ah,  fine ! 
Shame  to  me!  And  there's  many  a  good 
Bamboo,  Katie!" 

"There  is  so,  Bridget.  Look  at  Hillen 
Harkimer,  that  nursed  the  dear  lady  night 
and  day !" 

At  this  specific  arrow  of  recollection,  Mrs. 


STUAKT   AND    BAMBOO  255 

O'Ragan  groaned  aloud  with  such  material 
and  voiceful  groans  a  fellow-tenant  put  her 
head  in  at  the  door. 

"  Can  I  be  bbrryin'  a  few  coals  off  ye,  Mrs. 
O'Ragan,  ma'am,  till  the  mornin'?"  she  sub- 
mitted, seeing  that  Mrs.  O'Ragan's  spirit  was 
still  firmly  implanted  in  her  flesh. 

"  Yis,  and  wilcome  !  wilcome !"  said  Mrs. 
O'Ragan,  with  relief.  "  Our  blissed  Master 
tills  us  to  lind." 

"  I  couldn't  take  them  from  ye,  ma'am," 
said  the  interloper,  struck  by  the  other's 
manner  of  passionate  generosity,  "  widout 
ye'd  be  promisin'  to  take  them  back  again." 

"Oh,  nivir  fear!"  interposed  Katie,  with 
supreme  pertness.  "It's  glad  enough  any- 
body'd  be  to  get  the  return  of  a  loan  off  ye, 
Nora.  Sure,  I've  sometimes  thought  if  I  had 
a  porious  plaster  on  me  chist  ye'd  be  borry- 
in'  it  off  me  back !" 

"  Kate  Shaughnessy  !"  said  Mrs.  O'Ragan, 
in  clear  reproof,  and  she  rose  solemnly  to 
perform  her  own  penances. 

She  loaned  here  and  she  loaned  there,  hop- 
ing for  nothing  again.  And,  with  a  cabbage 


256  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

thirst"  on  her,  she  deliberately  gave  away 
that  choice  flower  of  many  perils  to  a  family 
with  a  similar  chronic  craving  and  poorer 
than  herself.  And  the  next  morning  she 
walked  a  mile  to  procure  a  particular  bit  of 
tenderloin. 

"  I'll  brile  it  for  her,  the  way  the  fine  folks 
diz,"  she  said.  "  Though  for  mesilf,  I  like  it 
me  own  way  best;  but  maybe  'tis  not  fine 
enough  for  the  likes  o'  her." 

She  carried  it  up  to  Margaret.  Margaret 
tasted,  then  looked  up  with  that  singular 
gift  of  the  eyes  prone  in  infatuating  hu- 
manity. 

"I  would  rather  have  had  it,"  she  said, 
with  adorable  fretfulness,  "in  your  old  way 
— dressed  with  an  onion." 

Mrs.  O'Ragan  went  down  the  stairs  as  if 
she  trod  on  air. 

"'Tis  your  middlin'  class  is  hard  to  get 
along  wid,"  she  affirmed ;  "  the  old  aristhoc- 
racy  o'  the  Stuarts  is  as  aisy  as  yer  shoe, 
every  time !" 


CHAPTER  XIX 

HELEN  still  spent  the  greater  part  of  each 
day  at  the  tenements  with  Margaret. 

As  soon  as  the  Stuart  began  to  weigh 
things  reasonably  again  she  drew  a  very  nat- 
ural sigh. 

"  I  must  be  vastly  in  debt — in  debt  not  only 
for  heavenly  and  unspeakable  kindness,  but 
very  sordidly  so  in  many  directions  as  well." 

Helen  meditated  a  moment,  then  she  spoke 
with  grave  composure. 

"  You  must  have  forgotten  the  sum  you 
intrusted  to  the  care  of  Mr.  Gilchrist.  It  has 
been  more  than  enough." 

Margaret  gazed  point-blank  at  her  com- 
panion with  blazing  eyes.  Helen  did  not  lift 
her  calm  face  from  her  book. 

"  Pardon  me ;  you  must  be  reading  some- 
thing very  interesting,"  said  the  Stuart,  cold- 
ly, at  last. 


258  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

"  Let  me  read  you  this  chapter,"  suggested 
the  young  Jesuit  with  ready  animation,  and 
she  began. 

"Don't!"  Margaret  interrupted  her,  petu- 
lantly. "  I  never  had  the  fortitude  to  be 
read  aloud  to  in  my  best  estate,  and  I  am 
not  strong  yet — you  know  I  am  not  strong," 
the  haughty  voice  broke  pitifully  and  the 
eyes  were  unsafe  to  look  at.  Helen  longed 
to  rush  to  her,  but  she  only  stopped  reading 
aloud  and  bent  stoically  to  her  book. 

The  next  time  her  attention  was  arrested 
by  the  Stuart  that  lady  had  collected  her- 
self, and  she  gave  a  wicked  laugh. 

"Helen,  however  valuable  may  be  the 
practical  lessons  in  which  you  are  absorbed 
in  that  volume,  I  stand,  or,  rather,  recline, 
before  you  as  a  living  example,  which  please 
regard  —  a  living  example  of  worldly  pru- 
dence and  foresight.  Please  look  up  at  me, 
Helen.  Do  you  not  think  it  Avas  wise  of  me 
to  be  so  provident?"  The  voice  was  as 
treacherous  as  a  sigh. 

Helen  looked  up  and  met  those  laughing, 
slumberously  revengeful,  beautiful  eyes. 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  259 

"  I  think — "  she  cried,  warmly  and  bluntly 
— "  I  care  not  whether  he  is  a  Jew  or  what  he 
is — I  think  Mr.  Gilchrist  is  as  honest  and— 
splendid,  and  true  a  man  as  ever  lived ! 
There !" 

"Why,  assuredly,  my  dear.  Do  you  think 
I  should  have  put  funds,  so  important  to  me, 
in  his  care,  if  I  had  not  believed  him  to  be 
that  2" 

"  Oh,  but  you  are  laughing  in  your  heart, 
and  you  are  cruel.  Oh,  Mrs.  Stuart,  if  you 
only  knew  !"  Helen,  rose-red  with  emotion, 
looked  ready  to  cry. 

"But  why  all  this  tragedy,  Helen?  I 
asked  you  a  simple  question,  and  you  have 
not  answered  it.  Now  do  not  you  think  I 
was  very  provident?" 

Helen  gave  the  other  a  compendiously  re- 
proachful glance,  and  bent,  scarlet,  to  the 
printed  page. 

"  Oh,  Helen,  always  have  something  com- 
mitted to  the  brokers — how  much  I  cannot 
advise  exactly,  as  my  illness  seems  to  have 
obliterated  from  my  mind  the  precise  extent 
of  my  own  most  fortunate  deposit ;  but  the 


260  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

example  holds  good,  and  you  have  admitted 
that  I  stand,  or,  rather,  recline,  before  you 
as  a  shining  light." 

Helen  did  not  look  up  until  she  began  to 
\vonder  at  Margaret's  quietness;  then  she 
saw  that  she  had  both  arms  laid  across  her 
e}res. 

She  went  to  her  and  spoke.  Margaret  did 
not  answer.  She  lifted  the  arms  and  found 
a  white  face,  tear-washed,  as  if  it  had  been 
smitten,  over  and  over,  by  waves  of  suffer- 
ing. 

"Oh,  darling!"  said  the  girl,  with  an  im- 
pulse to  throw  her  own  soul  before  the  wom- 
an in  penitence  without  reason  and  in  ador- 
ing caresses,  when  a  truer  thought  came  to 
her.  "  You  have  no  trust  even  in  what  is 
most  worth  trusting,"  she  sighed,  gently ; 
"you  have  no  faith  in  any  one,  I  think." 


CHAPTER  XX 

BUT  the  Stuart's  proud  soul,  withal,  had 
been  beaten  as  with  whips,  and  was  lethar- 
gic in  despair. 

"  Come  out  just  for  a  bit  of  a  walk,"  Hel- 
en urged,  another  day.  "  The  doctor  said 
you  might.  The  day  is  perfect." 

"  Wait  till  to-morrow,  dear,"  replied  Mar- 
garet, with  insinuating  readiness.  "I  will 
try  to  go  to-morrow.  But  I  am  so  desper- 
ately tired.  So,  as  I  was  telling  you — "  She 
went  on  with  some  pretty  reminiscence. 

"But  you  would  gain  so  much  faster  if 
you  only  wished  to  gain,"  interposed  Helen, 
"  and  if  you  would  come  out." 

"  Surely,  yes ;  I  must  try  to-morrow.  You 
are  a  wise  little  woman." 

Helen  looked  at  the  proud,  sweet-featured 
face,  smilingly  suave,  even  in  the  extremity 
of  its  hopelessness. 


262  STUART    AND    J JAM  BOO 

"  Come,  dear  Mrs.  Stuart,  just  come  to  the 
window  !  See  !  the  sky  is  like  June." 

"Is  it?  Ah,  so  it  is,  I  think."  Margaret 
looked  up  very  listlessly.  "  And,  as  I  was 
telling  you,  dear —  She  resumed  her  story, 
playing  with  the  curtain  tassel,  when  Isaac 
Gilchrist  was  seen  suddenly  approaching  up 
the  walk. 

Margaret  dropped  her  toy  as  if  she  had 
been  given  a  blow.  But  Isaac  never  raised 
his  eyes.  And  herein  had  Margaret  so  re- 
assuring a  confidence  that  he  would  not 
raise  his  eyes  that  she  still  stood  at  the 
window,  and  they  watched  him  enter  the 
door. 

"  Is  not  he  good  ?"  said  the  Stuart,  with  a 
touch  of  animation. 

"  He  is  very  good,  indeed,  I  think,"  replied 
Helen,  rather  bitterly.  "  He  longs  very 
much  to  see  you,"  she  added. 

"  Why,  to  be  sure ;  he  is  such  an  inestima- 
ble friend,  Helen,"  said  the  lady,  with  amaz- 
ingly oblivious  composure.  "  But  I  am  not 
able  yet — I  really  am  not  able." 

Helen  looked  too  unwarily  into  the  infat- 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  263 

uating  despair  of  the  Stuart's  eyes,  and  tem- 
porarily deserted  her  guns. 

"  No,  I  think  you  are  not  able  yet,"  she 
murmured.  So  she  prepared  Margaret's  sup- 
per, sat  with  her  a  little  longer,  and  left  her, 
as  was  her  wont  now,  for  the  night. 

Margaret  slept  after  her  illness  weakly, 
absolutely  like  a  child. 

But  in  the  middle  of  this  night  her  frail 
door  was  shaken,  then  crashed  in.  She  woke 
in  a  nightmare  of  smoke  and  crackling 
flames. 

"Where  is  your  dressing-gown?"  gasped 
Isaac  Gilchrist.  "  Here !  Quick !" 

"  I  cannot  see !"  she  cried,  half-way  across 
the  room,  and  hid  her  eyes  in  pain  against 
his  coat.  He  lifted  and  carried  her. 

So  at  midnight  they  stood  as  in  the  heat 
and  glow  of  an  awful  noonday  by  the  poplar- 
tree  at  the  gate. 

"Why  are  they  putting  up  the  ladder?" 
said  Margaret.  "  The  people  are  all  out, 
surely  ?  See !" 

Isaac's  eyes  were  red  and  streaming  with 


264  STUAKT   AND   BAMBOO 

the  agony  of  the  fire  he  had  so  barely  es- 
caped through  with  his  burden. 

"Plantagenet  rushed  up  to  his  granny's 
room,"  he  said.  "  She  was  so  high  up — and 
now  the  staircase  has  fallen.  '  Of  the  line 
of  the  kings,'"  he  repeated,  his  tortured  eyes 
fixed  on  that  attic  window. 

He  of  the  "Line  of  the  Kings,"  when  escape 
was  so  suddenly  and  terribly  cut  off,  turned, 
for  the  greatness  of  love's  sake,  a  smiling 
face  to  his  granny.  She,  often  wandering, 
was  wide  adrift  now  in  her  mind. 

"  I  think  we're  in  the  cathadral,  Plontogo- 
net,  love,"  she  said,  awesomely  ;  "  the  can'les 
is  a'  alit." 

"  So  they  be,  Granny." 

"  'Tis  a  bit  of  a  noise  about,  wid  the  mul- 
titude, but  the  organ  is  p'alin',  afar  off." 

"  Sure  'tis  a  swate  sound  afar  off  from  the 
roarin',  Granny." 

"  Aye,  it  hushes  ye  like  a  mither — like  a 
mither.  I  think  Biddy  Nolan  has  brought  in 
her  infant,  Plontogonet ;  she  was  all'us  bring- 
in'  it,  wid  nobody  to  care  for  it  at  home  ;  'tis 
a  bit  wailin'  I  heard,  but  'twill  soon  cease. 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  2G.J 

It  hushes  of  us  all,  Plontogonet,  like  a 
mither." 

The  armor  of  the  Yarmouth  fire  depart- 
ment was  primitive,  yet  the  ladder  reached 
so  far  that  Plantagenet  could  save  his  granny. 

The  film  was  over  her  eves :  she  clung  to 

•/ 

him  in  the  holy  trust  of  a  great  race,  and  he 
did  not  deny  his  immortal  origin. 

"Come  now,  Granny,  'tis  a  field  o'  the 
shamrock  just  outside — as  ye  was  tellin'  me 
about.  Come,  I'll  lift  ye  over  the  sill. 
Come,  till  ye  tread  in  it  once  more !" 

lie  supported  the  frail,  little,  aged  form, 
clung  to  it  with  superhuman  tenacity  till  the 
strong  arm  of  the  giant  below  had  received 
it ;  but  for  him  to  gain  a  footing  there  un- 
aided was  impossible. 

"  God  helpin'  me,  I'll  be  back  for  ye,  me 
boy !"  the  fireman  shouted,  tears  streaming 
down  the  sweat  and  grime  of  his  face. 

Plantagenet's  eyes  rested  with  wide  exul- 
tation on  the  deliverance  of  his  granny ;  he 
seemed  little  concerned. 

"When  the  crowd  below  saw  what  he  had 
done,  and  that  he  was  biding  yet  a  perilous 


266  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

chance  for  himself,  they  broke  into  a  shout 
that  transcended  even  their  terror. 

Plantagenet  had  on  the  cap  designating 
him  as  commander  of  all  the  forces.  He 
lifted  it  and  smiled. 

But  there  was  no  reascent  of  that  insuffi- 
cient ladder.  The  crash  of  the  wall  sublime- 
ly anticipated  the  expectation  of  the  multi- 
tude, and  the  face  with  its  halo  of  triumphant 
love  sank  from  sight. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

MARGARET  stood  gazing  as  though  her 
kinsman  had  lifted  her  into  the  length  and 
breadth  of  some  tearless  knowledge,  whith- 
er he  had  fled.  When  the  lady  was  first 
brought  out  Mrs.  O'Ragan  had  put  her  own 
shoes  upon  her ;  these  stalwart  coverings 
looked  out  broadly  from  under  the  richly 
furred  dressing-gown — a  relic  of  auspicious 
days.  Moreover,  Mrs.  Shaughnessy  had 
thrown  her  own  ragged  plaid  shawl  over 
the  Stuart's  head.  She  held  it  below  the 
chin  with  her  wasted  hand,  but  her  face  was 
strangely  heedless  and  young. 

"  Come !"  said  Isaac. 

"  And  where  ?  Where  now  ?  I  have  no 
place,  except  I  might  go  with  Plantagenet. 
But,"  said  she,  musing,  unhurried,  and  with 
such  unconcern  as  gave  an  air  of  great  delib- 
eration to  her  logic,  "  you  risked  your  life  to 


268  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

save  me.  Do  you  wish  me  to  go  ?  I  will  go 
where  you  wish." 

"I  have  had  a  home  for  you  this  many  a 
day,"  said  Isaac ;  "  and  it  is  beautiful — along 
shore  where  you  love  to  be.  When  you  are 
strong  we  will  go  where  you  will ;  and  Gran- 
ny is  waiting  for  you  yonder  in  the  carriage. 
Come !" 

Granny  was  telling  her  beads,  and  none 
interrupted  her. 

"  Aye,  it  hushes  us,"  she  murmured  at  the 
end,  "like  a  mither.  And  so  ye  are  goin' 
to  take  her  to  the  priest  at  last,  Isik  2" 

"  At  last,  mother." 

"And  'tis  me  ye  must  have  to  the  mer- 
riage.  Will!  will!  Plontogonet  has  run  on 
afore.  lie  niver  was  aisy  like,  but  mus'  be 
all'us  runnin'  on  afore.  Like  as  not  he'll  be 
off  on  a  bit  of  a  progriss— the  lad !  Niver 
mind,  'tis  in  the  race.  Stuart  be  Stuart." 
She  tried  feebly  to  straighten  her  shrivelled 
little  old  form.  "  Stuart  be  Stuart.  I  was 
merried  meself,  darlin',"  she  said,  weakly 
touching  Margaret,  a  flush  of  hectic  joy  in 
her  cheeks,  "  wid  a  bit  of  a  shawl  over  me 


STUART   AND    BAMBOO  269 

head,  long  ago.  Ah,  Michael,  me  own  loving 
man,  d'ye  mind  the  tune  o'  the  sky  and  the 
bells  that  evenin'  ?  Do  ye  see  Plontogonet 
on  afore,  Isik  ?" 

Isaac  bent  the  quiet  majesty  of  his  eyes 
full  upon  her. 

"  Yes,  mother,"  he  said,  "  I  see  Plantag- 
enet  on  before !" 

"  Thank  God  !  It  hushes  us— it  hushes  us 
all—" 

With  these  words  Granny's  feet,  seeking 
a  path  from  the  way  of  tumult  and  bewilder- 
ment, stepped  over,  thus  suddenly  and  pain- 
lessly, into  assured  peace. 

Isaac  suddenly  took  a  turn  of  the  mind  for 
ostentation.  Mrs.  Gilchrist  was  the  lady  of 
Yarmouth  now. 

Mrs.  Herkimer,  when  invited  to  the  sumpt- 
uousness  of  the  Stuart  -  Gilchrist  carriage, 
comported  herself  with  an  impressiveness 
that  would  have  been  stultifying  but  for  the 
easy  levity  of  Margaret's  manner. 

"  Do  you  really  think  I  used  to  earn  seven 
cents  an  hour,  Mrs.  Herkimer?" 


270  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

"More,  my  dear  Mrs.  Gilchrist;  far,  far 
more !" 

"  Well,  perhaps  I  did,  when  I  drove  that 
unspeakable  beast.  How  is  Eulalie  ?  How  is 
the  colt  ?  IIo\v  is  Judson  ?" 

"  Judson,"  said  Mrs.  Ilerkimer,  "has  had 
a  useful  lesson.  He  is  quietin'  down.  He 
sees  that  the  first  gatherin'  of  the  orchards  is 
not  always  for  him.  The  captain  never  used 
to  company  with  him  much,  but  I  see  he 
takes  him  sailin'  sometimes  now." 

She  sighed,  portentously. 

"  I  trust,"  she  said,  "  that  the  seeds  of 
grace  in  captain  may  be  equal  to  this  emer- 
gency." 

"  Oh,  they  will !  I  should  feel  absolutely 
sure !" 

"You  have  a  very  happy  theology,  Mrs. 
Gilchrist,"  said  the  captain's  lady,  not  with- 
out much  sadness.  "I  have  sometimes 
thought  of  late  that  Helen— 

"Well?" 

"Was  carryin'  cheerfulness  into  themes 
where  a  different  manner  might  be  ex- 
pected." 


STUART    AND    BAMBOO  271 

"  Oh,  Helen,"  said  Margaret,  with  bright 
eyes  and  the  glow  of  health  in  her  cheeks— 
"Helen  is  my  saint !" 

"  Mrs.  Gilchrist !" 

Margaret  laughed  encouragingly  through 
her  white  teeth.  "  Yes,  indeed,  Helen  is  my 
saint.  She  consented  to  it  when  I  was  ill. 
Dear  Mrs.  Herkimer,  whatever  should  we  do 
without  saints  ?" 

Mrs.  Herkimer  did  not  reply,  but  as  soon 
as  Margaret  had  turned  to  a  smiling  contem- 
plation of  the  landscape  she  put  up  her 
glasses  and  regarded  her  narrowly.  "  I  think 
what  she  went  through  has  touched  her 
mind  a  little,"  she  concluded.  "  She  appears 
in  perfect  health,  but  she  saw  dreadful 
things.  "Well,  perhaps  He  carries  such!" 

She  sighed,  replacing  her  spectacles  in 
their  sheath.  But  the  Stuart  understood 
both  her  act  and  her  thought,  "  No,  I 
am  not  lout\"  she  said,  still  smiling,  but 
almost  with  tears  in  her  eyes;  "only,  so 
far  as  any  knowledge  goes,  I  am  just  a 
wayworn,  simple,  superstitious  Paddy!  that 
is  all!" 


272  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

Mrs.  O'Kagan  could  tell  how  her  "own 
blood  -  cousin,  Mrs.  Stuart- Gilky,  ma'am," 
among  other  benefits,  ''did  be  takin'  her  for 
a  ride,  God  be  thanked!  so  far  into  the 
counthry  as  the  say -wind  niver  smote  a 
feather  of  ye." 

And  indeed  on  this  occasion  the  bird  in 
Mrs.  O'Ragan's  bonnet  hung  limp  and  de- 
jectedly, carrying  nothing  in  its  bill  forever- 
more. 

At  which  and  other  thoughts  the  blood- 
cousins,  Mrs.  O'Ragan  and  Margaret,  though 
not  always  sad  by  any  means,  sometimes 
wept  familiarly  together,  as  those  of  one 
race  should. 

Then,  one  day,  with  a  glowing  sense  of 
graciousness,  Margaret  wrote  to  Mildred ; 
the  substance  of  which  letter  was,  in  brief, 
that  she  desired  to  educate  and  make  a  fine 
lady  of  her. 

But  Mildred  wrote  back  that  she  was  too 
busy,  and  the  time  was  short.  Aside  from 
other  work,  she  had  the  "Army"  work. 
There  was  a  girl  hopelessly  ill,  whose  com- 
forts would  be  snapped  short  and  whose 


STUART   AND   BAMBOO  273 

heart  would  be  broken  if  she  left  her 
now. 

"  God  bless  you,  dear  Mrs.  Gilchrist,  but 
I  cannot  leave!" 

Margaret  hung  her  head.  "  The  saints," 
she  murmured,  perplexed,  "are  growing  on 
my  calendar.  And  of  how  many  faiths! 
Even  Isaac — my  husband — the  Jew !" 

But  here  she  grew  troubled  again.  If  Mar- 
garet's brain  had  been  touched,  it  was  not 
in  any  point  of  perception ;  but  the  adamant 
of  hereditary  convictions  had  been  broken, 
perhaps  that  flowers  might  spring  deep  where 
the  gliding  surface  had  been. 

At  present  she  was  only  conscious  of  dis- 
turbance. Mentally,  in  this  respect,  she  was 
easily  tired.  In  company,  where  questions 
were  brought  up  which  once  she  would  have 
answered  nonchalantly  and  at  length  in  her 
languid,  graceful  voice,  she  blushed  wearily 
now  and  avoided  argument.  If  pressed,  she 
had  infinite  ease  and  skill  in  changing  the 
subject. 

Isaac  observed  and  smiled. 

But  there  was  one  spar  to  which  Margaret 


274  STUART   AND    BAMBOO 

clung  in  this  sea,  and  as  she  grew  to  love  her 
husband  more  a  great  trouble  concerning  him 
grew  also  in  her  heart. 

They  stood  by  the  shore,  and  it  was  sunset 
of  a  cool,  wild  day.  They  had  strolled  on  to 
that  little  burial-place  where  some  lay  for 
whom  the  tide  had  already  "  served."  There 
was  a  beautiful  new  stone  there,  and  it  was 
Isaac's  gift  and  of  Mrs.  O'Ragan's  selection. 

"She  would  have  those  words  upon  it!" 
said  he,  his  whole  face  lighting  tenderly. 
"Well,  she  is  justified  !" 

PLANTAOENET  STUART 

*    *    * 

Of  the  Line  of  t?ie  Kings 

A  red  gleam  from  the  sky  fell  over  the 
raised  marble  of  the  letters  and  turned  them 
to  gold. 

"  I  would  have  added,"  said  Isaac,  the  same 
illumination  touching  his  face — "I  would 
have  added, '  On  Progress ' ;  but,  though  Mrs. 
O'Ragan  evidently  disliked  to  thwart  me, 
yet  she  demurred  at  that  as  '  a  bit  playful,' 
she  said." 


STUART    AND    BAMBOO  275 

"Well,  Isaac,"  said  Margaret,  whom  the 
time  now  moved,  "do  you  not  think  that 
death  is  solemn  ? — dreadful  ?" 

"  I  think  it  is  nothing,"  said  he,  the  red 
gold  from  the  west  still  shining  on  his  face. 
Margaret  turned  to  him  with  a  slight  gasp. 
"  I  think  it  is  nothing,  I  know  it  is  nothing ! 
If  we  believe  in  God,  surely  we  believe  it 
is  nothing.  If  we  believe  even  only  in  nat- 
ure, we  know  it  is  nothing — but  new  life! 
In  the  sense  of  terror  and  despair  and  final- 
ity, it  has  no  existence  except  in  unsound 
minds.  See  how  some  souls  instinctively 
scorn  it  as  powerless !  See  how  Plantagenet 
scorned  it !" 

"  Yes,"  said  Margaret,  "  and  you  —  you 
scorned  it  for  me — I  remember !" 

In  the  impulse  of  this  thought  she  almost 
forgot  to  put  her  next  question ;  but  now, 
after  a  little,  she  did  so,  timidly,  those  seek- 
ing shadows  wide  in  her  eyes — like  Plantag- 
enet's. 

"  And  you,  Isaac,  do  you  believe  in  Christ?" 

"  With  all  my  heart,  Margaret !" 

"  As  the  Son,"  gasped  Margaret,  quickly, 


276  STUART   AND   BAMBOO 

in  unbelieving  hope,  and  sucking  in  her  under- 
lip  with  her  own  inherited  sob — "  as  the  Son 
of  God?" 

Isaac  smiled  upon  her  perturbation. 

"  As  the  very  Son  of  God,"  he  said,  quietly. 


'IMF.    END 


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